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FMAB Homunculus multi-character study


SAO LILDOOP

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Introduction

This multi-character study is meant to prove the Homunculus were not evil; I will talk about each Homunculus and state evidence showing there innocence, by the end of this study I hope all of you will realise where I am coming from, my point of view and that the Homunculus are not evil creatures.

I am using quotes from both FMAB and FMA for some of these characters because these characters were the same in FMA as they are in FMAB, I will only be studying Wrath from FMAB and not even mentioning FMA's Wrath because he is a completely different character.

 

1: Lust

Image result for FMAB lust gif

Lust loved "The dwarf in the flask" Homunculus, or as she knew him, Father. She stated that the Homunculus held affection for him, this is no evil trait, to love one's father is good.

Lust said, "Maybe you are right. Where did I come from and where will I go when I die? Maybe all this time this is what I wanted: The freedom to find out." This shows that she did not really know her purpose or what would happen to her at death.

Lust also said "Memories... Of the people we were. There subtle but there real. It took me a long time to understand what I saw... Books say we shouldn't have memory's. Or at least there only the memory's and emotions of the alchemists who made us; that we see. But their wrong... Those memory's are mine..." This shows that since she as well as all the other Homunculus were created by Philosopher's stones they had memory's of those people or of there past lives seeing as Father could recreate them once they died; This only helps to make me feel worse for Lust seeing as she would be very confused about who she was at all.

When Riza finished shooting Lust over and over again and crying, Lust remarked "You humans are such weak and foolish creatures." This is what most homunculus said, but not what they thought and as it was shown, the Homunculus were the more foolish creatures seeing as they lived life in confusion with all hope to change but never knowing how.

Lust was a poor, confused and sad Homunculus. She tried her best in life and did what she was told, what more could she do?

2: Gluttony

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Gluttony was basically a child. He loved his father and he loved Lust very much, he was so angry he sought out and tried to swallow Roy Mustang for killing Lust; Whenever met with the memory of Lusts death upon seeing someone who reminded him of her, he would lose his normal idiotic and childish persona and get enraged, he even said "I hate you! I hate you for hurting my Lust!" this shows that he loved her.

Gluttony worked for Father without question and tagged along with other Homunculus whenever they were around like Lust or Pride (Who ate him) for example, he was not very independent and didn't really do much for himself; he basically always just asked "Can I eat him/her?" and waited for an answer. I do not think Gluttony was evil in any way, he was merely hungry all the time hence the name Gluttony and acted on that, he had love for his siblings and his father and he was a good son.

3: Sloth

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Sloth was indeed extremely lazy, he did not enjoy his work and did it merely because he had too or at least that is what I think. He was always asking when his work would be done so that he could just go rest, he attempted to murder Miss Armstrong under orders from his superiors and ended up being killed. There was not much about Sloth and that's probably because he was a fairly boring character seeing as he had one personality trait and it was laziness. He was not evil at all and only followed his orders hoping to finish them, had he been left alone he would just have slept. He was more of a gentle giant than an evil brute, however he was used for evil.

4: Pride

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Pride was extremely prideful and thought of himself as higher than any human. He was immensely powerful and he served Father perfectly acting as Edward stated "His willing lapdog". Pride by all senses of the word was evil right? He killed his own brother in fact and showed no love toward his siblings, he did however show affection towards Father; therefore I would disagree that he was evil, yes he did evil things as did most Homunculus but would that not be expected of a child who was raised evil from the start, a single sinful personality engrained into him from birth, yes, yes it would.

Although Pride seemed to be very cold and hateful to most, he did love his adoptive Mother, Miss Bradley and even went as far as to say he enjoyed being her child. He said that most humans were weak and pathetic but then there were those like her, she cared for him and he cared for her. It is not clear if he loved Bradley or not.

In the end Pride was killed by Edward after having lost his Pride when Kimblee said "I was perfectly content, but when you decided to throw away your honour as a Homunculus you forced me to step in. You speak of your precious pride, that quality for which you were named, but then you suddenly find yourself in danger and you seek to escape into the body of a human, the lower life form you so despise." Pride then reverted back to his true form, which was a fetus-baby. He was raised thereafter by Miss Bradley and was a good child, seeing as his pride had been cast aside upon his death. This shows that if Father had raised them differently, they could have lived happy, fulfilling and good lives; Even when they were filled with Evil they could change as Greed will further show.

5: Greed

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Greed as Ling Yao was not purely evil, he was intensely greedy and wanted what his Father wanted, to be God or at least that is what he told himself. All he really wanted was friends as he stated when he saw Edward battling Father. He betrayed his Father and fought to help Edward and the other whom he had "Palled up" with. He realised in the end all he really wanted was friendship, it was Ling who helped him to realise this throughout the show and Alphonse's sacrifice at the end that drove it home. He changed even though his only trait as a homunculus was greed and this is because of Ling, if only someone had shown this kind of affection to all the Homunculus. Ling tried to save Greed even at the end when he knew Lan-Fan had a Philosopher's stone for him, this made Greed very happy and he sacrificed himself, telling his first and last lie to protect Ling. He was also influenced by the fact that the past Greed had friends... he had friends and he killed one of them. The past Greed and Ling's Greed both show that Homunculi could change, yes the past Greed did not change but he did exhibit love for his friends around him and his spirit which lived on in Greed after having regained the memorys later changed completely and rebelliously defied Father. Greed was a true Hero.

His last words, "Goodbye my soul... Friends."

6: Wrath

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Wrath also known as King Bradley was a maniac. He loved to fight and found such intense pleasure in doing so as he stated when talking to Scar in his final battle. Wrath served Father perfectly and he did what he knew how to do, kill. He was the embodiment of Wrath and yet he still married and loved Miss Bradley, this is a true testament to the Homunculus not being evil; They were born evil but it seems all of them loved Father, despite not having it in him to love others, Wrath loved his wife; This may have been because he was once human but I find that to be unplausible, he was a Homunculus and he was to only feel wrath if he felt any other from the start than the Homunculus would not have fully taken his body over. Bradley is a strange case and I don't know how to fully explain him, did he truly change or had he held on to some of his more human emotions from before? He did criticize Father at one point as well, so this would lead me to think that he may have. Although with no proof either way, he truly is mysterious. He died smiling and saying "My life was lived on the rails that were laid down for me... But thanks to you humans, it was... to some degree, a good life... one worth living." Now this I thought he said because he was intrigued by them and by how the fought and he enjoyed fighting them but it also I believe was his was of saying Miss Bradley had made his life worthwhile.

At one point in the show he also said that despite having been human he looked down on humans as they looked down on bugs, he had pride in being a Homunculus, a greater species and he would not throw that away. Seeing as he is not supposed to feel Prideful at all, as all the Homunculus were supposed to have one feeling, even Pride said "I am not angry... I am never angry" this makes me think, is he saying he loves Pride/Selim here? It appeared to me that he did actually love his family, his wife an his brother.

7: Envy

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Envy was the Homunculus with the most screen-time and development in my honest opinion. I felt bad for him the entire show long and could tell he was envious of humans and wanted to be like them, he wanted to feel love and more emotions than he had. Envy enjoyed what he did, he quivered with glee as he spoke of murdering Hughes in the body of his own wife and he spoke fondly of murdering the Ishvalan child and starting the "Ishvalan war of extermination". However I do not believe he enjoyed what he did as much as he acted like, he served Father as did all the other Homunculus and to the untrained eye he may have seemed like the most evil Homunculus. But I saw in him a sad and depressed character, you could tell by the things he said that he wanted to be human, he envied them and knew they were better than him, he knew deep down inside that he was the inferior species.

In response to Edward telling Envy "You're... Jealous of humans." He replied, "Humans? This is a disgrace. Being turned into a worn-out dish-rag like this. Being beaten up by you humans... Beaten by an existence on the same level as shit. And to make matters worse, a runt like you who's shitty even by human standards... *cries, screams* Dammit! dammit! dammit! This I a disgrace... a disgrace... I envy am jealous of Humans? I, Envy!? It's the greatest disgrace... To be understood by a brat like you". This made me tear up, Envy had maybe the worst personality trait because he was completely unhappy with what he was, he wanted more, he wanted to be human and understandably so. Envy witnessed the power and determination of Humans all show long and he yearned to be one of them, he was a tragic case. He was filled with the souls of many people, as you can see when he transforms, and living with them, there cries and screams must have tormented him so, hearing them calling out for their parents and brothers, hearing how they loved, envying each and everyone of them; however he also probably enjoyed it a bit, it made him seemingly better than a human, it made him feel better than them, it helped him to supress him feeling of inferiority.

Envy as well as all the other homunculus had they been raised right and imbued with more than one sinful emotion would not have had to die as tragically as all of them did.

8: Father

Image result for FMAB Father gif

Father himself, the one responsible for the creation of all seven Homunculus; The one responsible for each and everyone of their actions, even father was not evil.

He was born in a flask, removed from the world, lower than a human slave. He wanted to get out, to see the world. It is not said if he originally had the seven deadly sins inside him as his personality or if he developed them. But it would appear to me he was born with them seeing as he was concocting evil plans since his birth although even if he just developed them, you cannot really blame him.

Would it not be expected of him to want out of his flask? Would he not feel wrathful, wanting to strike down those who kept him inside? Would he not feel envious of those around him, living on in the outside world? Would he not feel greed, hungering for freedom? Would he not feel Pride knowing he was more powerful than his captors? Yes indeed he would feel all of these and with good reason, but what good feelings would he feel? Would he feel love when none was shown him? Of course not, he was merely a caged animal with only Hohenheim to talk too, what could he have possibly learnt that could make him good from an illiterate slave?

When Father broke out from his flask killed everyone in Xerxes excluding Hohenheim and later split off his sinful personality's into his children was he wrong in doing so? I do not believe so, for as he said when meeting Truth, "Why!? Why wont you become mine? God, what are you unhappy with?" he then went on to say, "I wanted to become a perfect being! I wanted to learn everything about this world! What's wrong with wanting that!? What's wrong with desiring it!? What's wrong with wishing for it!? Who, who the hell are you!? Who!? Who the hell do you think you are!?" Father jus wanted to be perfect, not held down by anyone as he once was, he wanted to live without restrictions from anything and as he said what is wrong with that? He didn't think there was anything wrong with what he did at all and was there, really? He, as a Homunculus thought himself to be better than humans in every way, just as we humans kill ants he killed humans; he was looked at as being evil by humans just as we would be looked at as being evil by ants for unnecessarily killing them.

 

Conclusion

Father was as much a victim as his children were, each and every Homunculus knew no better than to do evil, what is to be expected of someone raised from birth with no teachings of right and wrong ingrained in them and born with evil tendency's? They will be evil and no more is to be expected of them and in saying that what I am really saying is... The Homunculus were not evil in any way. How could you say a child who lives to do exactly what his Father tells him to do without fail is evil? The Homunculus knew it would be wrong for them to disobey there Father, that to them would be evil. Yes they could change because Greed did, but he had a lot of help and why would the Homunculus change? They were killed if the disobeyed their father and if they obeyed him, praised, if you praise a child when he does something will he not continue doing it?

"Train up a Child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it". -Proverbs 22:6 King James Bible.  

 

Parting words

What do you think? Do you agree with me? Please leave comments in the comment section below and tell me your thoughts! Also, who was your favourite Homunculus? Mine was Envy. ♥

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by SAO LILDOOP
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10 hours ago, Wedgy said:

You're missing something here- do the ants think of humans as evil? If you're going to equate the humans to ants in this analogy, that shifts the entire narrative. Since we are looking at things from the perspective of humans and whether or not they think of homunculi as evil, it doesn't matter what the homonculi think of themselves as because the question here is 'what do the humans think?' What do the ants think?

From the ant's perspective, we are unfeeling, unsympathetic beings thinking and feeling nothing when we kill them. What does it matter to an ant if you did it because you didn't know any better? What does it matter to an ant if you did it because you were jealous, or simply enjoyed it for sport? You still killed the ant. Their life was not more important to you than whatever justification befell you for doing it.

So take this as both an agreement and a disagreement. Through what lens are we viewing this? Perhaps from an omniscient point of view, a case can be made that while they are predominantly evil beings, they have the capability to resist their intended natures and are simply victims of circumstance. However, from the point of view of a human, those circumstances are not enough to condone for their actions.

Aaah, yes, thank you, very insightful. :D I always just look at character's from their own point of view, I agree from a human perspective the would be evil but from their own perspective, they would not be and that's why they are not in my opinion.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alright, I completed this the other day but I took a break halfway through so I likely won't remember the details of the former episodes too well.

So I liked your argument about Gluttony, I didn't really think about it like that when I watched the latter episodes--but it makes sense.

With Sloth--you know I don't really dislike characters that don't want to do anything, sometimes people need a break from life, sometimes they need to recover like perhaps they were overworked and you could probably make that argument with Sloth since he had to dig that gigantic travel--but I think I should save this for a better character. ;;^^

I liked it when Pride said that some people would give their life to protect some things, like he didn't say that it was a weakness and in fact he said that he admired his mother for being willing to throw her life away to protect someone so it shows that he respected that about humans.

I think it was sad when Greed first died--I don't know why he had to die the second time. :'( I'm unsure if it was the same Greed the whole time or not, but I do agree with what you said. You know, there was a lot of good cliffhangers, and when Greed comes in to kill Wrath is one of them.

What you said about Wrath made me think, he's not the one who said it's okay if Madam Bradley died--that was one of the other members of the high council, huh?

It was sad when Envy died too. :'(

And then there's Father, he was just a dwarf in the flask and he desired very much to get out. One thing I've heard people say is that humans are born good, but that isn't the case, humans are born with the capacity to do good but with the desire to do evil--but as you've said it's only when someone is taught right from wrong that they know the difference between the two. As someone else said here, it isn't always black and white and people choose what sort of life they live. So with that in mind, it's unfortunate that at some point or another that his desires became distorted and he ended up choosing the bad path. I like how they tried to give every character a reason for what they do. ^^

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