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The Scarred Man (傷の男, Kizu no Otoko), known more casually as "Scar" (スカー, Suka), is a nameless lone serial killer and revolutionary who targets State Alchemists for his own brand of lethal justice in accordance with the fundamental tenets of his religion and for the revenge of his slaughtered people and family. An Ishvalan survivor of the Ishvalan Civil War, Scar's moniker comes from the large X-shaped scar on his forehead and sports a conspicuous and intricate alchemical tattoo on his right arm, which originally belonged to his older brother, and which he uses as his murder weapon of choice.
Appearance
Being a native Ishvalan, the man known as Scar carries the dark complexion and distinctive red irises of his people. He is fairly tall with a muscular build and his hair is shaved close on the back and sides, leaving a silver-colored crown on top. In the manga and 2009 anime storyline, this crown sticks up a bit, while the 2003 anime series depicts it as relatively flat and spread out. Scar's right arm is adorned with a thin scar stretching entirely around the limb where the bicep meets the shoulder and, from that mark all the way down to the wrist, is nearly covered with a complex tattoo. The upper portion of his face is disfigured with a large X-shaped scar which stretches across his forehead and down over his eyes into his upper cheekbones. The manga storyline portrays Scar as being in his early- to mid-thirties while the 2003 anime depicts him as being roughly ten years younger. In the early part of either series, Scar wears sunglasses to hide his red eyes from view and bears a distinctive gold-colored jacket emblazoned with a cross on the back and sleeves. Additionally, he sports a pair of black slacks with a white cross on the left leg and a white stripe running down the right.
Personality
Scar is a decidedly brooding and angry man, almost totally consumed by hatred toward the people who destroyed his homeland. Knowing full well that his actions go against many of the teachings of his religion, he still fashions himself an agent of God's divine punishment and takes out his fury on State Alchemists. However, vestiges of his former life's kinder nature are prone to seep through. Even in the middle of his bloody vengeance, Scar is willing to show compassion toward others, honoring last requests and offering a chance to pray before dying. He is reasonably wise and a skilled rhetorician, though his misguided thirst for vengeance clouds his greater judgment and leads his arguments in circles. Having had his people and his family stolen from him, Scar sympathizes with those who care for their loved ones and looks after those who have lost their place in the world. Additionally, he is very protective of his surviving kinsmen and takes all their words of encouragement or chastisement to heart.
Abilities
As a former warrior of Ishbal, Scar is quite adept at hand-to-hand combat, boasting significant strength and stamina, remarkable agility and reflexes and deceptive speed. Though the 2003 anime shows him as a young armed combatant during the war, in the manga he displays his abilities on the field by subduing a number of armed Amestrian soldiers using only melee tactics. Scar's killing spree throughout Amestris itself is proof of his skills, as he manages to murder ten State Alchemists (including Basque Grand, who had been hailed as a combat specialist) and is able to hold his own against combat-based alchemists like the Elric brothers and Alex Armstrong. In addition, Scar proves himself capable of taking down inhuman beasts such as chimeras and Homunculi. Most impressively, through a combination of luck and skill, he managed to gain a pyrrhic victory over a severely wounded Wrath.
Scar is also reasonably intelligent, able to comprehend some more complex alchemical texts and concepts despite having never studied the craft and an adequate tactician capable of immediately identifying and assessing his opponents' weaknesses in combat.
Use of Alchemy
Scar's right arm with tattooed transmutation array.
While his physical prowess and intimidating figure are frightful in and of themselves, Scar's most dangerous element is his right arm, which is able to destroy anything with which it comes into contact by way of the intricate and arcane Transmutation Array tattooed thereupon. As a fundamentalist opponent of alchemy, Scar does not consider himself an alchemist in the traditional sense, but the strain of alchemy that his arm itself allows him to produce is powerful, advanced and unique. As observed by those who have seen it in action and lived to tell the tale, Scar's method follows the cyclical flow of transmutation, but only takes into account the first two steps - comprehension and deconstruction. By "stopping at the second step", the physical structure of whatever he targets is broken down and not reshaped, essentially reducing it to debris. By applying this method to his victims, he destroys their internal systems (general organs in the manga, but the brain specifically in the 2003 anime version) instantly while circumventing both Human Transmutation and the Ishvalan stigma associated with giving new form to one of God's creations. Still, for all the serial killer's anti-alchemical posturing, the fact that he is unable to deconstruct an object whose composition he does not comprehend suggests that Scar does have a fair bit of alchemical knowledge and must actively identify, or at least make educated guesses at, the makeup of objects he wishes to destroy; despite his repeated assertion that the arm (and not himself) is the one performing alchemy, Scar is an amateur alchemist by practice.
The origin of the markings on Scar's arm differ somewhat between the manga and 2003 anime story-lines of the series, but in both it was originally the right arm of Scar's older brother, transferred from one sibling to the other in an emergency procedure during the Ishval Civil War.
Manga and 2009 anime
Scar's arm array is the deconstruction half of a two-piece complementary set designed by his older brother. By studying both Amestrian alchemy and Xingese alkahestry, Scar's elder brother was able to find similarities between the two and combine them into an array that incorporated their strengths. The right arm, marked with "TERRA"(the Latin word for "Earth") and "AER"(the Latin word for "Air"), carries an array incorporating twin snakes in a Caduceus pattern surrounded by reptilian scales which may represent the "Dragon's Pulse" of alkahestric origin and a series of tribal arrows leading down to the wrist, representing an outward flow. This arm is designated for deconstruction. The left arm, designated for reconstruction, is marked with the same array turned upside down to represent an inward flow and with the Dragon's Pulse tattooed in white ink rather than the black ink of the right arm. Its inward flow completes the cyclical pulse of full transmutation and it is marked with "IGNIS"(the Latin word for "Fire") and "AQUA",(The Latin word for "Water") completing the elemental tetrad.
After an attack by State Alchemist Solf J. Kimblee left the young Scar dying from exsanguination due to the loss of his right arm, his older brother used the Alkahestric properties to transfer his own right arm to his brother's body in exchange for his life. Though Scar is unable to transmute past the deconstruction stage with this arm, the Alkahestric nature of the array makes his transmutations immune to Father's alchemy-sealing ability.
Scar reveals in Chapter 103 that he had, at some point in the previous several months, deciphered the deconstruction array enough to accurately recreate the reconstruction array that had been on his brother's left arm. Now, with his own left arm marked with the same array, he is finally able to create in addition to being able to destroy and can perform full transmutations with the full power of his brother's extensive research. Though new to the craft, not having had enough confidence to even make an attempt before The Promised Day, Scar proves himself able to create large spikes from the ground similar to those used by the Elric brothers and Alex Louis Armstrong. However, instead of being conical, Scar's spikes take the form of hexagonal pyramids.
2003 anime
The array on Scar's arm is a fragment of a larger array called the Grand Arcanum, which his older brother had tattooed over his entire body after delving into old alchemic methods in a failed human transmutation of his late lover. The Grand Arcanum, an ancient and forbidden strain of alchemy native and unique to Ishvalan culture, was designed to create a Philosopher's Stone by reacting with lost souls and other incomplete Stones, absorbing them into the array. After an attack by State Alchemist Solf J. Kimblee left the young Scar dying from the loss of his arm, his older brother regained his senses long enough to transfer his own right arm to his younger sibling at the cost of his own life. As such, Scar's right arm is an incomplete Philosopher's Stone, retaining enough of his brother's full-body Grand Arcanum tattoo to react in the same way. It gives off a scarlet light when used, in keeping with the nature of the Stone, and painfully absorbs Red Stones and the souls of Scar's victims into itself as it attempts to become complete.
The markings on the arm are similar to those in the manga, but are more vague and lack the defined symbology of the Dragon's Pulse arm. Additionally, because of its differing origins, it carries a different meaning. It appears that his arm is able to reconstruct, but is not allowed to by Scar's religious ideology.
Manga and 2009 anime
Ishval Civil War
Young Scar during the civil war.
As a young warrior monk living in the Kanda region of Ishval during the Ishval Civil War, the man who would later be known as "Scar" personally opposed the assimilation of his homeland into greater Amestris and found his distrust of the central government cemented by the military atrocities that erupted around him each day. His indignation reached a head when he discovered that his older brother had taken up the study of Amestris' craft of alchemy - a practice forbidden by the teachings of Ishbala. Though his brother tried to explain his research pursued the fusion of alchemy and alkahestry in an attempt to foster understandings between different groups of people and bring Ishval into the modern age, the young man grew ever angrier that his brother would waste time on such insubstantial endeavors while people were dying and hatred was soaking into their homeland - even more so when his older brother went so far as to tattoo the results of his research onto his arms.
When the combat began escalating in the Kanda district, the young man and his family made preparations to evacuate the region. His brother, afraid that his discoveries would die with him if he were killed while fleeing, entrusted his notebook of discoveries to the young man in the hopes that a warrior monk would have a higher chance of survival than himself. Unfortunately, no sooner had he handed over the notes than the group came under attack by the Red Lotus Alchemist Solf J. Kimblee. Caught in one of Kimblee's signature explosions, the young man was mortally injured, bleeding profusely from a wound on his face and the loss of his right arm. In a hasty rescue attempt, his older brother used the power of the arrays he had engineered to transfer his own right arm to the young man's body at the cost of his own life.
The young man awoke some time later in an emergency clinic set up and maintained by married doctors Yuriy and Sarah Rockbell, who had applied emergency surgery and bandages to heal the man's injuries. Discovering that his entire family had died and his brother's telltale arm attached to him instead, the young man flew into a blind rage of anguish and slew the Rockbells with a dagger before fleeing into the desert, where the sight of Ishval's total devastation awaited him. From that moment, the young man swore to survive only for the sake of vengeance on the Amestrians and the State Alchemists who had taken everything from him and wandered off.
Alchemist Killer
Scar awakens to the sight of his new arm, and a new horror.
A few years after the war, the young man reemerges on his path of blood. Having discovered the power of the tattoo on his new right arm, he begins assassinating State Alchemists, slaying five in Central City and five more in different places around the country before making his way back east. Among his victims was Brigadier General Basque Grand, a veteran of the Ishvalan War who was renowned for his expertise in hand-to-hand combat and military alchemy. Using a rudimentary description of his appearance, the military police profile him with the moniker "The Scarred Man", shorthand "Scar", due to the large X-shaped scar across his forehead, however, having hidden his right arm and red eyes, he manages to avoid being identified as an Ishvalan refugee and a user of alchemy. Arriving in East City, Scar tracks down Shou Tucker, the State Alchemist known as the "Sewing-Life Alchemist" at his home and kills him. While there, he encounters Tucker's daughter, who had been transformed into a chimera by her father's alchemical hubris; taking pity on her mutilated form, he kills her as well and flees the scene.
The following day, as he wanders through East City, Scar coincidentally comes across the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric on the street and attacks. Fullmetal and his younger brother Alphonse attempt to flee, but Scar gives chase and eventually corners them, forcing them to fight. Attempting to disarm them, Scar discovers that Alphonse is actually a soul inside an empty suit of armor and that Fullmetal's right arm is Automail, but adapts his attack accordingly and immobilizes both of them. As Scar moves in to deconstruct Fullmetal's body, young Edward asks him to spare Alphonse's life in exchange. Scar complies, but before he can end the boy's life, the Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang and the Strong Arm Alchemist Alex Louis Armstrong arrive with a cadre of soldiers and attempt to cordon him. Scar's initial assumption that encountering so many targets at once is a sign of good fortune is immediately dispelled when Strong Arm proves a formidable opponent. While this is going on, Ed is informed that Scar murdered the Tuckers. After Scar's glasses are knocked off and his red eyes exposed to the crowd, he collapses the street and escapes into the sewer system.
Some time later, as he wanders beneath the city, Scar finds himself accosted by a mysterious duo - a large man and a beautiful woman - who seem inexplicably unaffected by his body destruction attacks. Seriously injured by their inhuman tenacity, Scar collapses the tunnel and escapes into the water before losing consciousness. He awakes in a slum for Ishbalan refugees outside of East City, having been rescued from the sewer by some of the ghetto's inhabitants, and remains there for several weeks while he recovers from his injuries and trains up his strength. Near the end of his recuperation, Scar is visited by his mentor from his days as a warrior monk in Ishval, who lectures him about the cycle of hatred that his senseless spree of violence is perpetuating, but they are interrupted by a pair of bounty hunters who have been alerted to the Scarred Man's location by Yoki - an ex-officer of the State Military now living in the slums as a beggar. Scar kills one of the bounty hunters and maims the other before setting out from the ghetto, telling his mentor that he cannot turn back from his path of blood. With Yoki - who is too afraid to stay in the slum after having betrayed the trust of the Ishvalans there - in tow, Scar heads for Central City to continue his vengeance.
Revelations in Central
Scar returns to Central City and begins his rampage again, killing three State Alchemists (including the Silver Alchemist, who mocks his inability to create things like a normal alchemist) with Yoki acting as his reluctant vassal. They encounter a young girl named May Chang who claims to be a traveler from the eastern nation of Xing and, as a practitioner of alkahestry (a native Xingese variant of alchemy), May recognizes the pattern on Scar's right arm as containing an alkahestric array known as the Dragon's Pulse.
When Scar hears multiple reports soon afterward of the Fullmetal Alchemist's presence in Central City, he sets out in search of his prey, finding Fullmetal and Flame together in an alley. While the Flame Alchemist flees, Edward and Alphonse engage Scar, who manages to keep abreast of their attacks, but is shocked to discover that not only has Alphonse learned the method of transmuting without a circle like his brother, but that Edward has learned to emulate Destruction Alchemy, gaining the ability to cancel out Scar's attacks. As a result, Scar's sleeve is destroyed, revealing his ornate tattoo to his enemies. The Elrics refute Scar's claim to righteous judgment, asking if the teachings of Ishbala would advocate his slaughter of the defenseless Nina Tucker back in East City, but Scar replies by asking if the alchemy they taught as the ultimate truth could have returned her to normal after it had made her into an abomination. Fullmetal, apparently having investigated some of Scar's past, then demands to know why Scar murdered the Rockbell doctors during the Ishval Civil War. Scar's shock at having his past dug up is compounded when he discovers that Winry Rockbell, the Rockbells' orphaned teenage daughter, has appeared behind him in the alley. Having overheard Edward's question, she collapses in hysterics and aims a pistol at the man she has just discovered to be her parents' murderer; the Elric brothers advise Winry not to shoot, but Scar countermands them, telling the girl that she has every right to take her vengeance on him but that he will count her as his enemy the moment she pulls the trigger. He declares to the three young Amestrians that the cycle of hatred will never end until one side is destroyed, but reminds them that it was their people who drew first blood.
Scar curiously hesitates in finishing off Edward.
Scar resumes the battle, but as he finds himself towering menacingly over Fullmetal, who has thrown himself in front of Winry, the Scarred Man remembers how his brother had tried to protect him from Kimblee and momentarily freezes in shock over the parallels between then and now. Jolted back to the present by an attack by Alphonse, Scar flees the alley while the armor boy gives chase. They reach a nearby train yard to continue their fight just as Fullmetal catches up, but are interrupted when the mysterious large man from East City suddenly appears on the scene, followed immediately by a young Xingese man whom the Elrics call "Ling". Scar watches in amazement as Ling mutilates the fat man's body with a grenade only to have it slowly regenerate. As the three youngsters scramble to trap the man's swelling body in a strong metal cable, Scar begins to understand why his powers were useless against the creature overhears them refer to the creature as a Homunculus - an artificial human. Taken aback by the strangeness of the situation, Scar attempts to flee, but is shot in the leg by Lt. Riza Hawkeye. Just as the Elrics begin to take advantage of Scar's injuries in order to capture him, May arrives and creates a diversion so that her new friend can escape to safety.
While hiding from the military police, May heals Scar's battle wounds and reveals that she has lost her pet panda Xiao-Mei, her only "family" in Amestris. Feeling sympathetic, Scar helps her search for the errant pet after military presence dies down the next day and witnesses Alphonse (with Xiao-Mei on his shoulder) accompanying the large Homunculus man into an underground passage. He and May pursue them, but upon entering the passage, the young girl shows significant discomfort with her new surroundings, claiming to sense the presence of several inhuman things beneath their feet. As they breach the underground, Scar and May are attacked by a veritable horde of monstrous chimeras tasked with guarding the Homunculi's inner sanctum from intruders, but are able to use their transmutation skills to hold their own against the unending horde as they make their way further downward. Eventually, the two of them breach the deepest level, where they stumble upon the Elrics and Ling battling with the Homunculi Gluttony and Envy and their mysterious Father. Taking advantage of the confusion of Scar's sudden appearance, Edward informs the alchemist killer that these Homunculi are the ones who purposely orchestrated the Ishval Civil War and that Envy himself fired the shot that began the fighting. Enraged by the truth, Scar aims his hand of vengeance at the new enemy, attacking Father with his Destruction Alchemy, but narrowly escapes death when he discovers that the strange old man is both immune to his deconstruction and able to perform powerful transmutations without circulating his energy or even moving at all.
Clearly at a disadvantage, Scar attempts to flee, but with his fresh injuries hindering him and Envy and Gluttony out to kill him, his escape seems dubious. He manages to make it into the sewers where Alphonse has been cornered holding an injured May, but is met by the chimera horde from earlier. Alphonse demands that Scar take May and escape to the surface but Scar protests, stating that even if he wanted to run away from the people who most deserve his vengeful hand, his injuries will make escaping while protecting another entirely impossible. In a flash of inspiration, Scar deconstructs a nearby sewer pipe into free-floating ash, hydrogen and oxygen before igniting them with a spark from Alphonse's steel helmet. The resulting explosion incapacitates Gluttony and gives Scar enough cover to slip away into the duct-work undetected. He remains in hiding for roughly a day, carefully navigating the maze of ducts spreading across the underground facility.
While there, Scar encounters a man being held captive by the Homunculi and makes his appearance known. To his surprise, the man introduces himself as former State Alchemist Dr. Tim Marcoh and explains that he was largely involved with the massacre in Ishval and is being forced to cooperate with the Homunculi's greater plan while a small village is held hostage. Marcoh requests that Scar kill him, thereby freeing both the alchemist and the hostage town from the clutches of monsters. Scar is overcome with rage over Marcoh's revelations, but first demands that the doctor explain exactly what was going on with the eradication of his people.
The Scarred Man leaves his mark.
Marcoh tells Scar everything he knows about the Ishval War, including the involvement of the State Alchemists as "Human Weapons" and the fact that the Philosopher's Stone that he himself had created was crafted using the bodies and souls of living Ishvalan war prisoners. When Marcoh's story ends, Scar flies into a rage at what he has heard, but informs Marcoh that he will not be allowed to die so easily for his sins. He demands that the doctor reveal all his knowledge regarding the State Alchemist known as Solf J. Kimblee as well as aid him in deciphering the more confusing parts of his brother's research notes - citing his brother's assertion during the war that something about Amestrian alchemy did not make sense. Taking Marcoh's clothes and the body of a small guard chimera chained up nearby, Scar and Marcoh transmute a false corpse which the Ishvalan serial killer deconstructs to simulate one of his grisly murders while scrawling "Vengeance" on the wall in blood to make the scene more convincing. Then, using the duct system, the two escape to the surface where Scar regroups with Yoki and May.
May is surprised to learn that Marcoh had created the Philosopher's Stone - the key to immortality - but Scar informs the little girl that such an evil thing should never be coveted. Despite the fact that Marcoh has joined their party, Scar calls the man his enemy and promptly unleashes his deconstruction alchemy on the doctor's face, deconstructing the few outer layers before asking May to use alkahestry to only staunch the bleeding rather than heal the wound - as it will be more convenient to have Marcoh's face disfigured so as to keep the Homunculi from recognizing him. He then declares that they will be heading to the northern region of the country - to the place where he had hidden his brother's research notes.
Answers in the North
Aware that they will be pursued by the enemy, Scar splits the quartet into two groups for their travel to the north - with May and Marcoh heading to East City by rail before heading to the Briggs mountain range while Scar heads directly north with a disguised Yoki by stowing away aboard freight trains. By the time Scar and Yoki arrive in North City, however, it is apparent that the Homunculi have sent someone after them in the hopes of recovering Dr. Marcoh. As they sneak onto a train headed for Briggs in the dead of night, Scar and Yoki find themselves accosted by a mysterious assailant. But when the moonlight flashes through their car as the freight train picks up speed, Scar recognizes his opponent as Kimblee - the State Alchemist personally responsible for the death of his family. Flying into a rage, Scar assaults Kimblee, causing great damage to the train with his deconstruction alchemy before gaining the upper hand by pinning the Red Lotus Alchemist to the back of the adjacent car with a damaged pipe. Unfortunately, before Scar can claim his ultimate revenge, Kimblee uses his explosive brand of alchemy to detach the rearmost cars, separating himself from the Ishvalan killer as he continues to move onward with the engine.
The four members of Scar's party (Scar, Yoki, May, and Marcoh) hold up in a cabin in the snowy region of Briggs. Marcoh and May have recovered Scar's brother's journals, but the most important parts are written in undecipherable ancient Ishvalan writing. Marcoh hopes that Scar, as a warrior priest, can understand them to help their research. This theory is not tested as for the fact that immediately after Scar gets to the cabin with Yoki, he tells his party that they need to move to a new hiding spot.
Later, while Scar is looking for supplies, two central soldiers who he attacked before getting to the cabin, show up and retaliates, performing their capabilities as human chimeras. They are soon subdued by the Elric brothers, who pretend they don't recognize them as their supposed allies. Scar quickly attacks the brothers, but falters as he notices Winry, which allows the brothers to trap him and his arm. Major Miles and his soldiers arrive and order back-up, while Winry questions Scar as to why he killed her parents. Scar claims he has no legitimate reason and that she has every right to take her revenge.
Winry, however, chooses to endure and not exact revenge on Scar and even bandages him, stating that it would be something her parents would do. Nevertheless, she still does not forgive him for his actions. Major Miles then laments his condemning of a fellow Ishvalan and Scar has a flashback of his master, preaching that even though what the Amestrian military has done to them is unforgivable, as humans, they must endure it so as to sever the bond of hatred and keep their own dignity so they won't be the same as vengeful beasts, and that his brother's theory about the flow of energy in the world, will grow positive if people build positive feelings and become able to hold negative feelings.
However, when Scar is about to be taken, Marcoh appears, begging them not to take him yet. Marcoh asks Briggs' authorities to let Scar go, at least for a while. Miles asks Scar to swear upon his Ishvalan blood to give himself over after his part is done, which Scar agrees, and Miles lets him go, although Ed strongly opposes it. When they find out that Kimblee is near, to cover all of them, Winry then proposes herself to being used as a "hostage" by Scar to provide cover for the Briggs army and Elric brothers, and to secure herself from Central's grasp. Scar swears on his Ishvalan blood to protect her, and Ed begrudgingly accepts it. In the end, he goes together with Marcoh, May, Winry, and the two chimera soldiers who have chosen to defect from Kimblee's authority, guided by Yoki, through an unused mine tunnel under the city.
March Toward the Future
After the time lapse, Scar allies himself with Edward, Van Hohenheim, Mustang, Greed/Ling, Grumman, and Olivier Mira Armstrong, the group leading the rebellion set to strike on the 'promised day'. He shows incredible growth in his character by stating, although he is not here to save Amestris, he is here to change it and destroy the corruption, along with his tribe leader and most of the refugee village. He also gives the captured Envy to May, as he may hold the secret to immortality that she had be searching for. When she protests against this, he reminds her that her duty to her country and people come first. Consequently, Scar has quite possibly developed the most of all the characters over the course of the series, as he was initially a serial killer but now works towards the common good.
Scar later engages in a battle to the death with Wrath, who is still majorly wounded from his previous battle with Fu, Buccaneer, and Greed/Ling. Before the battle fully commences, Wrath asks what Scar's real name is, to which he states he doesn't have one, as he's abandoned his name long ago. Wrath is pleased with this, as Wrath himself does not have a name and the battle is between two nameless warriors.
Scar's reconstruction arm.
However, things look to be going Wrath's way as Scar is pinned to the ground, with Wrath about to deliver the finishing blow. However, spikes suddenly impale Wrath's sword arm, and when greeted with Wrath's look of shock (Wrath thought that Scar could only use deconstruction), Scar states that he had finally unlocked how to use reconstruction, courtesy of his brother's research notes.
Both men are then shown being engulfed in a black dome summoned by Father activating the transmutation circle. He and Wrath survive and continue their duel, with Scar eventually emerging victorious (though injured) after destroying Wrath's hands. Lan Fan, who had arrived earlier seeking revenge for her grandfather's death, helps the weakened Scar move to the transmutation circle. Scar then activates the Alkahestric Reverse Circle, giving Amestris its alchemy back.
After the circle is activated, Scar explains to Lan Fan how his brother had learned about alchemy and how Alkahestry had intrigued him. Scar's brother had been mystified as to why the National Library contained no books on the subject and was forced to rely on caravans from Xing to learn about Alkahestry. In his studies, he discovered to his horror that alchemy did not come from the energy of tectonic plate movement, but rather from a far more sinister source. Scar's brother also learned of the Nationwide Transmutation Circle and the barrier that had been placed on Amestrian alchemy, and since he knew the military would not allow him to interfere, he designed a reverse transmutation circle that was a combination of Amestrian alchemy and Xingese Alkahestry. The circle would destroy the barrier and allow the alchemists to put an end to Father.
Eventually, Lan Fan and Scar meet up with Greed and, later, Olivier's group. Greed orders that all normal people and wounded individuals remain, and Scar is one of those who stays behind. Olivier discovers the dead body of King Bradley and Scar tells her how he had been wounded by someone earlier, allowing him to emerge victorious. Olivier then realizes that it was Buccaneer who had wounded Wrath. Scar is then seen collapsing on the floor due to his injuries.
He was, afterward,
Scar at the end with Miles.
secretly rescued by Olivier. When he woke up, he commented that this was the second time he nearly died, but both times rescued by Amestrians. Olivier then told him that the reason she saved him was to work together with Miles to save the Ishvalan people and religion (and also to make Mustang get into a bad position once he's found alive). He accepted this position and thought to himself that this was the reason he was still alive. When Olivier asked him what his real name was, he answered that since he's died twice he does not exist and thus doesn't need a name. He asked to be called whatever she liked.
His last appearance was is a photo of him with Miles several years later, where he has grown stubble and a ponytail; both of them slowly working to bring Amestris and Ishval together.
2003 anime series
Scar's younger appearance from the 2003 anime.
Scar is an Ishvalan, a group of religious people who take their name from the god they worship, Ishvala. In particular, the art of alchemy (known to Ishvalans as the "Grand Arcanum") was considered one of the greatest taboos of Ishvalan culture (because alchemy implies that humans can make God's creations better than God could). Scar's elder brother broke this taboo by attempting the most dangerous form of alchemy, human transmutation, in an attempt to resurrect the deceased woman that both he and Scar had loved. As is the way of such things, the attempt failed (leading to the creation of the Homunculus, Lust), causing Scar's brother to be outcast by his people. Later, during the Ishval massacre, he began to seek the Philosopher's Stone and soon discovered the truth from an Ishvalan Exile. Realizing that the key ingredient in the stone was human lives, Scar's brother tattooed his body with the necessary transmutation symbols that would allow him to absorb lives and become a living Philosopher's Stone himself. The lives in question were those lost in a massacre of the Ishvalan people by the State Military, but as Scar and his brother attempted to escape after the attack, they were pursued by State Alchemist Solf J. Kimblee, who used his alchemic powers to give Scar his eponymous disfigurement, and to blow his right arm off his body. Scar's brother dispatched Kimblee by robbing him of the power-enhancing Red Stone he was wielding, and then fused his own right arm to Scar's body before dying. Due to the type of Transmutation Circle on his brother's arm, Scar has a partial Philosopher's Stone always ready to be used.
Scar's brother's right arm bore the symbols necessary for the first two portions of an alchemic transmutation - the understanding of an item's molecular composition, and the deconstruction of that matter (with the third step being the reconstruction of the matter into a new form). Unaware of this particular detail, Scar traveled to the city of Central, in hopes of using the information in the State Library to discover the nature of the symbols. His entry to the library barred, Scar clashed with young State Alchemist, Edward Elric, who inadvertently tore his shirt and exposed his arm, causing him to flee. Not long thereafter, while ruminating in an alleyway, Scar was approached by Nina Tucker, a young girl who had been turned into a chimera by her father. Taking pity on Nina for the pain she was now suffering, Scar discovered the power within his arm when he deconstructed her body, killing her out of mercy. Soon after this, Scar briefly encountered Ed again but spared him as Ed had temporarily resigned his commission as a State Alchemist.
Now aware of the power he wielded, Scar embarked on a campaign of revenge against all State Alchemists over the course of the next three years, killing many by exploding their brains within their skulls. In tracking and killing the "Iron Blood Alchemist," Basque Grand, Scar crossed paths with Edward Elric (and his brother, Alphonse) once again. Edward quickly recognised Scar from their last encounter three years earlier and he and Alphonse attempted to prevent Scar from killing Tim Marcoh, another State Alchemist who had participated in the Ishval Massacre. The fight was interrupted by Major Alex Louis Armstrong, who held off Scar long enough for Elric and his brother to escape, but it was a brief respite - Scar soon tracked them down, and shattered Edward's arm, and a large portion of Alphonse's body. Reminded by them of his relationship with own brother, Scar promised not to kill Alphonse (as he was not a State Alchemist), but before being able to kill Edward, Marcoh confronted him with an incomplete Philosopher's Stone, which Scar's arm absorbed (as per its purpose to absorb souls). Unaware that this was the purpose of his arm (and that it appeared to cause him pain as it was absorbed), a suffering Scar fled. However, when the Elrics were preparing to travel to Resembool with Armstrong, Scar hid in the train station and held a young paperboy's sister hostage in exchange for having the boy eavesdrop on a brief conversation between Ed and Maes Hughes for him. It was during this conversation that Ed found out Scar killed Nina.
When the Elrics later broke into the military's Laboratory Five, to uncover the twisted alchemic experiments that had been conducted there, Scar followed them, saving Alphonse from serial killer Barry the Chopper and battling the Homunculi Lust and Gluttony. When Edward was presented by the Homunculi with the chance to obtain a Philosopher's Stone by killing the prisoners held within the laboratory, he refused, and, noting this act of nobility, Scar held back from killing him.
Nursing injuries from this encounter, Scar returned to the refugee camp occupied by the remaining Ishvalans, only for it to be attacked by mercenaries posing as the State Military. Scar escaped with two children and an Ishvalan elder, and promptly ran into Alphonse once again, who was at the time separated from his brother after a disagreement. The younger of the children, Rick, was then captured by the mercenaries, and Alphonse and Edward reached an uneasy truce with Scar to work together and rescue him. Scar then left with the refugees and traveled with them to the Southern Slums.
Through further study, Scar eventually came to realize the true nature of his arm as an incomplete Philosopher's Stone, containing the souls of all those who had died during the Ishval Massacre. Concluding that he needed the stone to stop the action of the State Military, he decided to finish what his brother had started, officially choosing to become an exile himself and sever his ties to the rest of Ishval. After picking up a locket that belonged to his brother's fiancee in Ishval, Scar traveled to the war-torn desert city of Reole and inscribed a gigantic transmutation array around the city itself by dragging a rock through its dirt streets. Learning of his presence there, the State Military arrived in force, along with the Elrics, who feared that he planned to sacrifice all the inhabitants of Reole to create the stone. Once again, Edward and Scar battled, with Edward repeatedly transmuting the matter of his mechanical arm to prevent Scar from deconstructing it, during which time, Scar confirmed to Ed that he did kill Nina four years earlier but only out of mercy. The subsequent arrival and defeat of Lust with the locket delayed the fight, which was then halted by the arrival of Rose and Lyra, prompting the revelation that Scar, in actuality, intended to safely evacuate the inhabitants of Reole and use the invading military as his sacrifices instead. He also managed to clear Lust's thoughts on her past human life, and admits that he loved Lust's human form; he also claims to have loved his brother, but hated him for his negligence and ignorance. Scar also learned from Ed that the hair in the locket is Lust's weakness, due to the Homunculi being weak against the remains of the human they were modeled after.
Scar's battle with Kimblee in Reole.
Kimblee led a small army of chimeras into Reole, and with the evacuation nearly complete, Scar and Alphonse engaged him in combat, only for Scar to have his left arm be transformed by Kimblee's alchemy into a living bomb. Scar sacrificed his arm, deconstructing it off of his own body, to prevent it from exploding, and blasted a hole in Kimblee's chest. Kimblee, however, proved able to cling onto life long enough to transmute Alphonse's body into explosive material. Lust told him to wait for Edward's arrival, as the only way to save Alphonse was to transmute his body into a different material, which Scar lacked the knowledge to do. To save him, Scar transmuted his remaining arm, and all the power and souls within it, into Alphonse's armored body as well as placed the locket on Al's body so Lust cannot interfere. Finally, he got Lust to take Kimblee's dead body into the sight of the military amassed around the city, prompting them to attack. Suffering bullet wounds in protecting Lust, Scar used the last of his strength to complete and activate the transmutation circle around the city, dying as the transmutation took place, and the Philosopher's Stone was completed - within Alphonse. Scar's real name is never revealed, as he states that he no longer deserves one. Scar later appears along with Trisha Elric, Nina and Maes Hughes in a montage of deceased characters whom the Elrics grew close to during the end credits of Episodes 42-50.
In the film that concluded the story of the 2003 anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, a parallel universe version of Scar is seen near the end driving a truck next to an alternate version of Lust, probably suggesting they developed a relationship in our world.
Relationships
Scar's Brother: They loved each other dearly. While Scar and his brother were near opposites and Scar never understood his brother's studies regarding alchemy and alkahestry, he genuinely cared for him. When Kimblee attacks them, Scar's brother shields Scar and later even cuts off his own arm and transmutes it onto Scar to save his life. When Scar realized his brother died, he went on a rampage which ended up killing Winry's parents. He would keep his brother's research notes which would later prove useful in saving Amestris. His death (along with the death of his fellow Ishvalans) is one of the main reasons for his hatred of Kimblee.
May Chang: Being a child and not being a state alchemist, Scar had no vendetta against her. She healed his wound and he allowed her to journey with him. She is one of the few people who didn't see Scar as a monster and he tended to protect her. She in turn grew to care for him as a brother, often healing his wounds and remaining attached to him.
Dr. Marcoh: The two met while Scar was investigating the underground tunnels to find the homunculi and learn why they instigated the Ishvalan war. Scar happened to be above Marcoh's prison cell and Marcoh revealed he was the alchemist responsible for the Ishvalan massacre. He begs Scar to kill him so the homunculi won't force him to be part of another genocide but Scar spares him to learn more and disfigures him so no one can recognize him. While there is clear animosity from Scar regarding Marcoh and what he has done, he still keeps him alive as his knowledge regarding the homunculi and Scar's brother's research notes was invaluable. While it is possible Scar still doesn't forgive him for what happened, he manages to tolerate his presence. In the 2003 anime however, Marcoh was one of Scar's targets and later attempt to kill him, along with Edward Elric, but Marcoh figured out the symbols on Scar's tattooed right arm, and helped drive him off.
Winry: He accidentally killed her parents when he was on a rampage due to the extreme pain of his wounds and trauma from witnessing his brother and fellow countrymen be killed by Kimblee. When she finds out he killed them, he tells her she is justified in shooting him but then she would become his enemy. He didn't hesitate to attack her but when Ed protected her, it reminded him of how his own brother protected him from Kimblee. When they meet again in the North and Winry offers to treat his wounds, he asks if she forgives him. She says no but that her parents would want her to help him. The two traveled together and although the two didn't interact much, it seemed Scar did grow to regret killing her parents since they did save his life.
Mustang: He hated Mustang as he did the many state alchemists who killed his countrymen and on a few occasions tried to murder him. As a result, Mustang did view him as a threat but the two worked together to stop the Homunculi from using Amestris to make a giant Philosopher's Stone.
Edward: Simply because of his status as a state alchemist, Scar hunted Ed down to kill him. Ed tried to use him to lure out the Homunculi since he knew Scar wanted to kill him and the homunculi wouldn't let Scar kill him. Ed hated Scar for what he did to Nina and when he learned Scar was the one who killed Winry's parents, his hatred for Scar increased. He hated having to work with him but often times the two were forced into an alliance for the greater good of the country.
Yoki: Yoki tried turning Scar in to get a reward and be reinstated into the military when they first met. When that failed, he quickly submitted himself to being Scar's servant, which Scar didn't object to. While he tries to play himself off as Scar's master, whenever Scar is in earshot he takes it back and calls Scar master. Scar for the most part seems to simply allow him to travel with him and thinks of him as a nuisance but uses him as a watch-out and to help find a means of transportation. He didn't seem to mind him getting killed when Envy got attached, though he could've been acting as well.
Kimblee: Kimblee killed many of Scar's people, including his brother and as a result is the state alchemist he hates more than anyone. Kimblee saw Scar as a survivor and a stain on his reputation since he wouldn't allow any Ishvalans he killed to have survived and the two fought against each other, though it ended in a draw but the matter was not settled as Pride eventually ate Kimblee. In the 2003 anime however, Scar however was the one who killed Kimblee during their battle in Reole after sacrificing his left arm.
Miles: A fellow Ishvalan, he is one of the people who try to convince Scar to give up his life of revenge in order to help reform the Amestrian government to help save their people. Miles does state he will shoot Scar if he continues to evade pursuit but admitted he would hate to have to kill a fellow Ishvalan. Though their interactions are short, the two do reference each other as brothers and by the end of the series work together to help rebuild Ishval.
Homunculi: Upon hearing that the homunculi were the ones responsible for destroying his people, he set out to eliminate them. His hatred for them eventually led him to an alliance with Edward and Mustang to help bring them down and save Amestris. In the 2003 anime, he also had a connection to Lust, as she was the created as the result of a failed transmutation by Scar's brother, due to his attempt to bring his deceased girlfriend back to life.
Trivia
- In the first anime, Scar died without his name ever being revealed. However, the author planned to reveal Scar's name before the manga finishes (in the "extras" at the end of volume 15, Arakawa states she has a name for Scar, but it's a secret). In chapter 102, when Wrath asks Scar what his name is, Scar replies he has no name and abandoned it long ago. As of Chapter 108, Scar officially has no name, stating that after dying twice, he no longer exists. It is unknown if his name will ever be revealed.
- As a joke in the non-canon 4-Koma Theater, it is stated that Scar's real name is Jugemu-jugemu Gokōnosurikire Kaijarisuigyo-no Suigyōmatsu Unraimatsu Fūraimatsu Kūnerutokoroni-sumutokoro Yaburakōjino-burakōji Paipopaipo-paiponoshūringan Shūringanno-gūrindai Gūrindaino-ponpokopīno-ponpokonāno Chōkyūmeino-chōsuke, derived from the Japanese folktale "Jugemu." The joke also states that King Bradley, another character whose real name is unknown, shares the same name.
- In the dub this is changed to Percival-ramteen-gregory-nikolai-jack-skozer-leonardo-gabriel-socrates-meanviktor-nostradamus-alistair-podisha-vladimir-steepler-rasputin-boromir-wallawalla-shidiga-alexander-oliver-abelard-arnesto-zippy-zappy-angel-eyes.
- In the 2003 anime, Kimblee personally gave Scar the X-shaped scar on his face and removed his arm. In the manga, both injuries were inadvertently caused by the explosion that Kimblee set off to murder the surrounding group of Ishvalans.
- In the 2003 anime Scar is much younger than he is in the manga and the 2009 anime adaption (appearing to be a man around his early to mid 20's).
- In the compiled volumes of the manga, Arakawa draws her boss as a shadowy, angry version of Scar.
- In some volumes of the manga, his ability for destruction is often joked about in the omakes, in which he is asked by an irritated Hawkeye (vol 14) to destroy a bathhouse that won't let people with large tattoos go in, and by an irritated Alphonse (vol 15) to destroy a convenience store that won't let people with helmet/head protectors in. In volume 16, a spoof of Scar mutilating Marcoh's face and May healing it is shown, with the spoof resembling an advertisement for a plastic surgeon, claiming it to be the "Fullmetal Plastic Surgery Clinic" (in which Marcoh's face, instead of healed into a scarred, deformed figure, is turned into a handsome, bishounen-style face), and for the newest popularity poll, killing Arakawa in cow form after finding out they both share the same rating in popularity (17th).
- Scar is one of three people to have single-handedly dealt a defeating blow to a Homunculus, the others being Roy Mustang and Edward Elric.
- Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, the Homunculus killed represents his biggest vice, his wrath.
- Although he didn't actually kill a Homunculus in the 2003 anime, the locket Scar retrieved in Ishval which contained the pieces of hair from the woman that Lust was modeled after was eventually used by the 2003 anime version of Wrath to kill her.
- In an omake, it is revealed that Scar has a soft spot for cats like Al.
- At one point in the manga, and 2009 anime Roy Mustang mentions a rumor, where Scar has been seen feeding cats.
- Although not appearing canonically until the second volume of the manga, a shadowy Scar is seen breaking into Arakawa's office (presumably to attack her) with a document labelled "photo typesetting" in the omake section of volume 1.