Envy (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Envy is a character from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime and manga.

Envy is the embodiment of some of Father's envy. Envy is genderless, and has the ability to shape-shift. This ability can be used to assume the form of any existing person (or original personas that Envy themselves creates). They can even modify their 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. Their hatred for humans has an immense emotional and personal foundation greater than any of their siblings'. Envy can easily be set off by insults due to their large and delicate ego, thus causing them to make mistakes.

Envy is one of the two Homunculi who possesses "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.

Appearance
Envy usually appears as a pale-skinned androgynous youth with a lean, muscular build. Envy has long, wispy hair, violet eyes with slit-like pupils, and wears a black, form-fitting bodysuit and a matching headband with an alchemical, triangular symbol on it.

Although already formidable in their 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 its 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 their 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 them like those of mammals and birds) and a jaw-less, sucker-like mouth resembling those of lampreys and parasitic flatworms. They are virtually helpless save for attaching to another living thing to take control, but once able to reach a Philosopher's Stone, Envy can regain their full ability.

Personality
Envy is by far the cruelest Homunculus, joking around and delighting in human misery. Envy will kill without hesitation, usually playing on their target's emotions to have a psychological advantage, with no remorse for what they have done. They even take pride in the suffering they inflict, 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 and aggressive 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 their inner envy. This eventually causes Envy to commit suicide. Notably, before this revelation, Envy disguised their inner motives so well that not even a slip of their true reasons occurred.

Despite their callous, ruthless, and sinister persona, Envy occasionally shows a more silly, rambunctious, and even comical personality around their fellow homunculi, and even some humans. When referring to its human appearance as being "cute and youthful," Lust reminded them that they were, ironically, 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 them up, but Ed was in a fit of rage after being called short and would not back down.

Perhaps, deep down, Envy is the saddest homunculus, having never known any true content or satisfaction.

Abilities
Envy has the ability to shape-shift into anything or anyone, whether it be real people, animals, or human aspects that they made up. They can transform into anything that doesn't exceed the size and weight of their 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 individual parts of their body, often using this ability in battle to transform their limbs into weapons.

Even in their preferred human form, Envy's appearance belies their actual weight, something Ling Yao realized as he fought them. Their true form's weight grants 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 their monstrous form, Envy can use their strength to its maximum and becomes all the more dangerous, with them being easily able to crush rocks under their limbs or in their jaws. Envy is also able to manipulate the human remains that cover their body, make them appear and disappear, and elongate their tongue to use it like a harpoon or binding rope, a continuation of their transformation ability.

Under their 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.

With the body of a Mannequin Soldier Envy initially only possessed the abilities of a Mannequin Soldier - along with the ability to absorb other Mannequin Soldiers. Upon absorbing enough of them Envy regained their former abilities, morphing their Mannequin Soldier body back to Envy's previous appearance.

Trivia

 * 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 at a rather quick pace. However, in the 2009 anime, the color of the morphing process is red, discharges some electricity, and is slower, looking very similar to a transmutation (red sparks are common for transmutations with the Philosopher's Stone).
 * 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 its manga counterpart. However, both share the same sadism and hatred toward humanity.
 * In the English Dub, Envy initially had a low and calm voice. During the last few episodes of the 2003 series, it changes to the louder and snarky tone that is used in the 2009 series.
 * 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 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 a 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 somewhat iconic Devilman antagonist Jinmen, another reptilian manga and anime villain. Jinmen was a demon turtle that grew the still-living faces of those he had eaten, with all of them appearing on his back shell, as manifestations of their own grudge against Jinmen for eating them and leaving them to scream in agony, much to his pleasure. In a failed plan to defeat the eponymous Devilman, Jinmen used one of Devilman's friends, a young child named Sachiko, 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 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 by assimilating more bodies Jinmen would eventually reform to gargantuan size.


 * In both continuities, the homunculus Envy dies in the form of a green non-human creature:
 * Manga and 2009 anime - Envy dies (via suicide) as a miniature reptile-like creature after Edward had noticed their overall insecurity.
 * 2003 anime - Envy dies in the form of a large draconic serpent after being transmuted alongside Hohenheim to activate a permanent portal.


 * Envy is an incredibly popular character, coming higher on the fan poll than any other homunculus, making them the most popular.
 * 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 being 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."
 * Both the Japanese and English (2009 anime) voice actors for Envy voice a character in Claymore called Ilena ("Irene" in English).
 * 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).
 * Although they seemed to bicker, Envy and Greed shared two preferences: both of them would rather avoid fighting if possible and both enjoyed their respective human form's good looks.
 * Envy's closeness to Lust and similarities to Greed make sense, as the concepts of envy and lust are similar sins, and envy goes hand-in-hand with greed.
 * In Envy's playable appearance in Monster Strike, they are categorized as Male.