For the version of Wrath from the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and 2009 anime, see King Bradley.
Wrath is a character exclusive to the 2003 series of Fullmetal Alchemist. The youngest of the seven Homunculi commanded by Dante, he was born as a result of Izumi Curtis trying to use alchemy to resurrect her stillborn son. As a child of the Gate, he took the left leg and right arm of Edward Elric when the Elric brothers attempted to resurrect their mother Trisha. When brought into the world, his body included Ed's lost limbs. Thus, Wrath is the only Homunculus capable of using alchemy and is able to transmute his own body at will.
Appearance[]
Wrath appears as a young human boy with pale skin, purple eyes and long, messy black hair. His right arm and left leg are actually the same limbs that Edward Elric lost during his attempt to resurrect his mother, thus they do not match with the rest of his body. His all-black attire consists of a short, sleeveless shirt, shorts and bands on his left arm and right leg. He also has two red lines ending in circular nodes running from his shoulders down to his thighs.
History[]
2003 series[]
After Izumi Curtis' child was stillborn, she attempted to resurrect it via the forbidden practice of human transmutation. This attempt resulted in Izumi losing several organs and the end result of the transmutation was not a true human baby, but a deformed Homunculus. Horrified, Izumi decided to give the child back to the Gate, the metaphysical structure where all alchemical knowledge originates from. The Gate Children took the child and it remained locked within the Gate until the day that the Elric brothers attempted to bring their mother back to life. Alphonse's entire body was lost during the transmutation while Edward lost his leg. However, Edward saw the Gate as a result of the alchemical rebound, immediately gaining all knowledge of alchemy for that brief period. In an attempt to save his brother, Ed was willing to give up more of himself, and so a grinning Gate Child took his arm as equivalent exchange.
When Edward was drawn back to the physical world, the Gate Child followed, entering the world as a Homunculus in the form of a human boy. However, he appeared in a different location, on Yock Island, the place where Izumi Curtis had originally attempted to resurrect her baby. The Homunculus had no memory of anything before finding himself on the island and lived there alone for an unknown amount of time before being found by none other than the Elric brothers and the woman responsible for his creation. When Edward noticed the boy's mismatched limbs and saw a scar on the shoulder (the result of a fox bite he had received while training under Izumi), he realised that the boy was a Homunculus and that the boy's right arm and left leg originally belonged to him.
For a brief time, Izumi took the Homunculus child in, but the Amestrian military later discovered the boy and captured him. However, while in military custody, the boy was approached by Envy, who fed the child Red Stones. From then on, the child became known as Wrath and worked alongside the other Homunculi in order to obtain Philosopher's Stones for Dante. During this time, Wrath became emotionally attached to Sloth, coming to view her as his mother. The two would work closely together as they hunted the Elric brothers.
After Lust betrayed Dante and decided to help the Elrics, Sloth and Wrath were sent to destroy her. However, following Edward's battle against Greed, Edward and Alphonse now knew that the Homunculi were weakened by proximity to the remains of the people they were made to replace and had prepared accordingly, carrying a lock of hair from Scar's lover (in case Lust betrayed them) and a bone fragment from his own mother's body (whom Sloth was made to replace). Fighting inside an empty munitions factory, Lust was able to immobilize Sloth and carved a transmutation circle into the floor. However, Wrath was able to grab the locket containing the lock of hair and used it to paralyze Lust, then used alchemy to kill her.
A short time later, Sloth was engaged with the Elric brothers and Wrath impulsively rushed in to help her. He transmuted himself and Sloth together, but didn't realise that the locket he held also contained Trisha Elric's bone. In his haste to help Sloth, Wrath had doomed her; paralyzed by the presense of Trisha's bone, she was helpless as Ed used alchemy to transmute her water body into ethanol, causing her to evaporate. Wrath was deeply upset by the loss of Sloth, whom he had grown to love as his "mother". He would encounter his real mother, Izumi, who tried to convince him to go with her, but he refused and fled.
Returning to the underground city beneath Central, Wrath begged Dante to use the Philosopher's Stone to resurrect Sloth, but Dante refused. Wrath ultimately proved to be of little use to Dante during the final confrontation with Edward, and when she used Roze's baby to summon the Gate, the Gate Children reclaimed Edward's limbs from Wrath, leaving him crippled and unable to perform alchemy. Some time after Dante's defeat and Edward's disappearance, Roze took both Wrath and the restored Alphonse to Resembool, the Elrics' home town. There, Winry and Pinako Rockbell outfitted Wrath with automail limbs similar to those used by Edward, but after receiving these limbs, Wrath ran off into Resembool's outskirts.
The Conqueror of Shamballa[]
In the two years since the end of the series, Wrath had been given new automail limbs by Winry. However, he remained by himself during that time, living alone on the grassy plains of Resembool and only appearing again when his limbs needed repairs. After Alphonse (who had returned to his human body by this point) discovered that Edward was alive on the other side of the Gate, he planned to open the Gate once again in order to bring his brother back to Amestris. Wrath offered to help him and together they ventured into the underground city beneath Central. In the underground city, Al worked to create the transmutation circle necessary to open the portal. However, he and Wrath were attacked by the Homunculus Gluttony who had mutated to monstrous proportions since Dante had erased his mind. Although his memories had been destroyed, Gluttony still seemed to recognise Wrath to an extent, most likely remembering it was Wrath who had killed Lust, and focused all of his energy on attacking him while ignoring Al.
Gluttony appeared to have Wrath outmatched, but the mutant Homunculus would bleed Red Stone periodically which solidified upon contact with open air. During the battle, Wrath grabbed some of the Red Stones and ate them to make himself stronger, then counterattacked by leaping at Gluttony and ripping off two of his tentacles with sheer brute strength. Gluttony would not be incapacitated for long and bit down on Wrath's torso. However, this was Wrath's intention all along as he had lured Gluttony into the transmutation circle and kept him in place by anchoring himself to the ground. He told Alphonse to transmute both Homunculi in order to open the Gate, stating that he knew Al was planning on sacrificing himself to do it and didn't want to see anything like that happen again. He said he wanted to "go home" to the Gate where his "Mommy" was waiting for him. Reluctantly, Alphonse completed the transmutation, destroying Wrath and Gluttony to open the portal between the worlds. Wrath then found himself before the Gate, his mother Izumi waiting with her arms outstretched and he embraced her before the Gate closed.
Abilities[]
- Superhuman Strength - Like the other Homunculi, Wrath boasts physical strength and endurance well beyond that of humans.
- Superhuman Speed - Wrath's speed and agility are significantly greater than that of humans.
- Regeneration - Wrath and the other Homunculi are capable of quickly regenerating, healing in seconds injuries that would normally be fatal to humans. However, this healing factor may or may not apply to the limbs that Wrath took from Edward Elric, though this cannot be confirmed as Wrath suffered no injuries to these limbs whilst he had them.
- Immortality - Homunculi do not age the way that humans do and can live indefinitely. However due to the fact that Izumi used her baby's actual remains for her transmutation rather than the collection of ingredients as the Elrics did, Wrath could be a special case due to the possibility of his body being organic. While he spent the majority of his life within the Gate, Wrath at the very least gained a more humanoid form and later escaped with the physical appearance of a 12-14 year old boy.
- Transmutation - Homunculi cannot perform alchemy themselves, but Wrath is the exception to this rule. Having claimed Edward Elric's arm when he appeared before the Gate, not only can he perform alchemical transmutations, but can do so without a transmutation circle. Wrath lost this ability when Ed's limbs were reclaimed by the Gate towards the end of the series.
Weaknesses[]
In the 2003 anime, Homunculi are weakened when exposed to the remains of the people they were meant to replace. Wrath would have suffered paralysis had he been exposed to the remains of Izumi Curtis' stillborn baby, however Izumi had used her baby's remains as the material for the transmutation, leaving nothing of the sort behind.
While his human counterpart's remains aren't available, Wrath is strongly effected by the sound of crying babies due to his trauma of being abandoned in the Gate. When confronting the Elric brothers in the sewers of Reole, Roze's baby started crying, distracting and frustrating Wrath but also causing him significant pain.