(no subject)
CHARACTER
APPLICATION
ilpromenade
PLAYER
✧ NAME: Marbles.
✧ LJ USERNAME: marburusu
✧ CONTACT (EMAIL, AIM, MSN, PLURK, ETC.): aim PhantomMarbles / plurk Marburusu
✧ CURRENT MUSE LIST: N/A.
CHARACTER
✧ NAME: Edward Elric.
✧ SERIES: Fullmetal Alchemist (Conqueror of Shamballa).
✧ HISTORY:
A summary of Edward's history in the first anime series, as well as the movie can be found here. However, it's lacking a little on Ed's time in between the series and the movie, so I'll elaborate a little here in bullet points:
• Edward moved from London, England to live in Munich, Germany with his father for at least a few weeks, researching possible ways to get back through the gate without using alchemy. Eventually, he found an interest in rocket science after reading Robert Goddard's A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes and left his father to pursue his research elsewhere in Europe.
• Keeping contact with his father in the meantime, Ed traveled through Europe and settled down in Romania, possibly joining the German Spaceflight Society of which his teacher was a member. This was probably the period in which his automail became too small and Hoheneheim made him his prosthetic replacements.
• This was where Edward met Alfons Heiderich for the first time - Alphonse Elric's other world counterpart. Coincidentally, he too was interested in rocketry and the two studied together under Dr. Hermann Oberth, Ed's previously mentioned professor. It's likely that Edward is well taught in rocket science (Astronomy specifically), astrophysics, and thermodynamics because of this, though his understanding of all subjects does not surpass anything that wasn't published before November of 1923 (unless said knowledge can be otherwise inferred from his canon).
• After completing their studies, Ed and Alfons moved back to Germany together, where they would share a flat after the sudden disappearance of Hohenheim. From there they continued their research at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, and their quest for a sponsor to fully build and design rockets with their team, the Münchner Raketenklub.
• The flat Ed and Alfons shared was quite small - entirely typical of their time period, and we only ever see one bedroom and one bed. Ed is shown sleeping in the bed on two occasions, and Alfons is seen collecting clothes from a dresser in the room at one point, but it's unclear as to whether or not they actually shared the bedroom. The bed is quite small (and there's only ever one pillow on it, only big enough for one person - the desk too only has one chair at it), and as I explain later on, Ed does not sleep with his prostheses on. Such an arrangement would probably be extremely uncomfortable for both of them, and additionally, it's possible they merely share the dresser instead of having two separate ones. Thus, I personally believe Alfons has a separate bedroom of his own, which would make their apartment somewhat larger.
If any additional information is required, please let me know!
✧ TIMELINE: Right as Alfons sends him through the gate in his kickass rocket-powered airplane that defies all science.
✧ PERSONALITY:
Oh boy. Edward Elric is... a special kind of guy. He's come a very, very long way from how he was at the beginning of his series, and he's emerged a different person in a lot of ways. He's accomplished his primary goal in life to return his borther to his body, and he knows that he's probably not going to ever get back to Amestris (he was kind of doing that at the point I've taken him from, but he doesn't actually know if he'll even make it through to the other side or not). Basically, this Ed has come to a point in his life where he is simply... okay. He might see Al again, he might not, but no matter what happens he's done what he's set out to do, and he can be happy with that.
The biggest change that's occurred in this Ed is probably his abrasiveness. He's definitely still pretty sassy and bold a lot of the time, and he's not afraid to kick some ass where he needs to, but the tragedy he's suffered throughout his life has really mellowed him down during the two years of living on the other side of the Gate. Ed is infinitely more polite than he used to be; he still eats a hell of a lot (Brotherhood confirms that he was eating/growing for two bodies for years, but that possibility is very unclear in the first anime and probably doesn't apply), but now Ed can eat like a normal person, at a close to normal pace. He even crosses his legs when sitting in a less casual atmosphere - yes, he can actually tell the difference now between when it's okay to be casual and when he should be more formal. Imagine that!
Ed is more mild-mannered than his Brotherhood self and rarely ever swears profusely (please note that I am using Romi Park as reference for all of his speech; I want to be as accurate to his speech patterns as possible, and that was how it was originally intended to be interpreted). Edward's language can be quite casual and occasionally a little crass, but his language mostly consists of generic Japanese insults that can easily range from "shoot" to "damn", and from "jerk" to "bastard" depending on what someone interprets from it. While some subs have him being more vulgar, I don't choose to perceive his insults as terribly crude myself, so please be aware that he will not be swearing up a storm.
However, Ed still enjoys poking fun at his friends (if he jokes about you, it's either an indicator that he's fond of you, or... that he really doesn't like you), and he won't refrain from teasing or getting saucier than he would with others. He's kept his sore spot about being called short, and it's one of those times where you can see Ed's old, bratty younger self come into play by the way he flips his shit. It's probably not a far stretch to say that his height is an even sorer spot for him now, seeing as how at an age where he's probably not going to grow any further, he's still really short unlike his Brotherhood counterpart. I would probably peg him at 5'2" at the tallest; almost all the women seen are at least a little taller than him and there are no grown men seen that are shorter than he is. Ouch.
Just because Ed's calmer overall doesn't mean he won't call you out if you're being a major asshole - he'll just do it with a little more class, with less screaming at you and pointing fingers and rubbing your face in the dirt. He's also more likely to try and reason with the enemy, if he thinks they won't take advantage of his pause, yet Ed wouldn't hesitate to hurt anyone that won't listen (as shown by when he breaks a man's arm for trying to kidnap a gypsy and threatening them with a gun. Also, Ed whips out a rocket on him). Despite this, Ed is very uncomfortable with going so far as killing anyone, but he's had to do it before and would probably do it again if he thought it was necessary. He really didn't take killing Greed very well at all, if his mental breakdown was any indication, and to make matters worse he had to kill his mom's homunculus - even if he'll never be happy with those decisions, Ed has realized that sometimes there's just no other way. Actually dying like... twice himself has helped him better understand the concept of death and come to terms with it, especially.
In fact, a lot of Ed's calmness can be attributed to the fact that he's simply accepted that his life sucks and there's nothing he can do about it, because no matter what he does, it's probably not going to get a whole lot better for him. He's surrounded by the concept of people he cares about being hurt or dying, so the ache of losing people is one he's sadly very familiar with by now. His view on killing people is a major difference between this Ed and his Brotherhood counterpart - they both share the opinion that life is sacred overall, though, and this Ed would still never use people's lives to create a Philosopher's Stone, if it came right down to it. Even during the series when the opportunity for one is right in his hands, and he has to choose between letting Lust kill Al or transmuting a bunch of prisoners and red water into a stone, no matter how much he hated himself for "betraying" Al he still couldn't make himself do it.
What should be noted that while Ed's Brotherhood/Manga counterpart is fairly masculine and matures more like a boy, this Ed is actually quite mentally androgynous (he identifies with male, of course, but it doesn't really affect how matures overall). He grows up along the way, but he's neither masculine nor feminine in doing so, in the sense that gender really does not have any reign on his own personality and how it's developed. Ed holds essentially no romantic attraction for anyone, especially in Conqueror of Shamballa; his distractions have shifted once again from his goal centered around Al, to trying to protect his world from intruders, leaving no time, in his mind, for romance of any sort. He's prone to getting easily flustered when people bring up romantic or sexual topics with him, and he will freak out (how badly depends on the situation) if he accidentally gropes someone, or even receives a lot of attention himself in that way, but unless it's brought up Ed never so much as thinks about romance or sex. As it is, I think he identifies closest with being highly demisexual, nearly asexual, which denotes a distinct lack of sexual attraction for anyone, unless under specific circumstances. Under such an opportunity, an intense emotional bond can be formed and result in romantic, and possibly, sexual interest. Though it isn't as though Ed himself ever thinks about his orientation, either; seeing as Ed gives no indication of a preference to any gender at all, whether he's heteroromantic, biromantic, homoromantic, etc is completely up for debate. Eventually, it's possible for him to become attracted to someone, but at this point he's spent his entire adolescence and most of his childhood not even considering attraction of any sort, and it's not likely that it will change for him very quickly.
Because there is next to no canon evidence in the 2003 anime that Ed is romantically interested in Winry, I choose to believe that if this Ed ever did have interest in her, it's not really there anymore - whether it's because he realized he thinks of her as just his friend, or because he realized it's never going to happen; either is possible, in that regard. So basically, I choose to believe that pairing is one-sided in his canon if it exists/ever existed at all. I'm sure someone will probably bring up the part in Conqueror of Shamballa where he blushes when Winry tackles him in a hug, so I'll clear that up right now: he hadn't actually seen her in two years and it's not like he wouldn't notice that she'd definitely grown up, especially seeing as how the first thing she did upon seeing him was squeeze him to death. It was definitely hammed up a little for the EdWin fans (the same as how Roy's predicament was hammed up with RoyEd subtext), but because the whole topic is left ambiguous, I'm going with the safest assumption and saying that it isn't going to happen.
Ed is a smart guy, and he definitely knows it - so in some ways, he can be pretty egotistical. However, just because he's prone to coming out on top when his wit or cleverness is involved doesn't mean he's very good with actually talking to people, and he listens more than he speaks now, for the most part. What you should understand is that Ed is a huge nerd; even at twelve years old, he would have been more excited about visiting a shiny, unfamiliar library than someone would be about going to Disneyland. He'll pick holing himself up with a pile of books over actually talking to people any day, and when he gets focused on reading it's a serious challenge to try and get his attention again; he's curious and loves to learn, if the topic interests him. He could probably be considered socially incompetent in a sense, because he didn't exactly grow up with any friends his age besides his brother and Winry, and definitely didn't have any chance at all from eleven years old onwards.
And while Ed clearly has a soft spot for little kids, he's not that good at all when it comes to dealing with older kids and teenagers. He has a tendency to relate things to science, since it's easier for him to express himself that way than it would be using normal people language. It's even clearer that Ed lacks social skills when you see that even without his little brother, he only had two friends throughout the course of the movie: Alfons, Alphonse's other world self who is just as big of a nerd as Ed is, and Noah, a gypsy and medium in the most inconvenient time period possible. So basically, people need to approach him if they want to be friends, because he's not very skilled at doing it himself.
Okay, now that I'm done with everything that makes him a dumbass, it's time to talk about some things that make him a great friend. Ed is unwaveringly loyal to the people he cares about, and he would never, ever abandon or betray them. He will do anything and everything in his power to protect his loved ones, uncaring of what consequences there might be for himself - serious injury, death, none of it matters to him if it means keeping his loved ones from harm. If something hurts them, Ed is extremely subjectable to blaming himself for it and will rarely actually forgive himself for his serious mistakes. Overall, despite his occasional bursts of ego, Ed really doesn't think he's a very good person and it shows in the careless way he treats his own wellbeing. He blames himself for the loss of Al's body when they transmutated their mother and agonizes over it throughout, rarely giving his own losses any thought at all in comparison. That much is obvious when he willingly transmutates himself at the end of the series to bring Alphonse back, showing that nothing is more important to Ed than his resolve and his love. He is usually fairly kind and generous to others, and on that basis, is generally likable despite his usual neutrality. He can be quite sympathetic towards people that have had a tough time when they don't deserve it and he can understand their own tragedies, but he always tries to get them back on their feet rather than dwelling - if a friends needs it, though, he'll be a shoulder for them to cry on too.
Like his Brotherhood self, Ed has some major family issues. His resentment towards his father for abandoning their family is even stronger, because not only did Hohenheim willingly transmutate entire cities to keep himself immortal, Hohenheim was extremely fickle with Ed and was just... genuinely not a good father or husband at all, while Brotherhood!Hohemheim actually did at least try to raise Ed properly. Hohenheim abandoned Ed time and time again throughout the series, with very little effort to actually reconcile with his son - now that Hohenheim is dead, Ed is only even more confused than ever about how his father felt. He does call Hohenheim "dad" now, since Hohenheim at least made him the articial limbs he needed after Winry's automail wouldn't fit him anymore, revealing that he wasn't completely an unreliable asshole, even if Ed hasn't really forgiven him for everything he did.
Alphonse, on the other hand, is the most important person in Ed's life. Without Alphonse, there's no way he'd have been able to handle all of the terrible things that have happened to him without breaking; Alphonse is his stronghold, his constant, his closest friend. Living without his little brother for two year has been really rough on Ed after how dependent he'd grown on Al over their course of their relationship, but no matter what he's still protective of Al and would give up his own life without a second thought if he had to. Winry and Pinako are family to Ed as well, and while he still teases them more than Al it's clear he's incredibly grateful for everything they've done for him and for just being there whenever he needs them, and Winry is still one of his most trusted friends. Also among Ed's most treasured people is his friend Alfons, and though some of his affinity for him stemmed originally from his physical likeliness to Alphonse, it's clear to him that Alfons is an entirely different person in his own right - one that Ed holds very, very dear, especially with recent developments.
As for Roy - he's held some less serious resentment and begrudging respect towards the man, but Ed saw everything Roy did through the stubborn mindset of his younger self. Now that Ed has had two years to consider their relationship, he's likely realized that Roy only ever had good intentions, and that a lot of what happened between them was misunderstood on his part. It's clear from the more amicable manner with which he treats Roy in the movie that he's gotten over their past scuffles and has come to consider Roy a friend - especially because the military desk no longer stands between them, and because it's now an adult-to-adult relationship (rather than adult-to-teenager or officer-to-subordinate). Despite that, Ed still makes jokes or remarks at Roy's expense, though it's clearly only meant to be teasing rather than insulting. Riza, on the other hand, Ed has always held a (slightly terrified) respect for and will continue to uphold that during their stay in Promenade.
Strengths
Mental: Mentally, Ed is extremely intelligent and is absolutely considered a genius in his own right, and when it comes to intelligence in alchemy, Ed is terrifyingly smart with what he does. He's often able to observe another alchemist's performance and determine what type of alchemy they're using -- and how -- from what he sees; he does this when Lyra "liquified the air around her, reduced its volume, and then all at once vaporized it again, producing a shockwave" at twelve years old early in the series. Thus, once Ed understands these methods of alchemy, he is typically capable of imitating it himself, and indeed does so on several occasions. His prowess with actually performing alchemy aside, Ed was able to read advanced texts at a young age (he and Al claim to their mother than they taught themselves alchemy using their father's books; they were 6 and 5 years old at the time), and was able to pass the State Alchemy Exam also at twelve years of age, which is known for being excruciatingly difficult and rarely passed even by most adults.
Despite having an official school education roughly equivalent to third or fourth grade, Ed takes all new information in stride and often understands it better than the people or materials that taught it to him in the first place. He has a firm and resolute knowledge of Biology and Chemistry, and in the Other World, where alchemy is almost obsolete, Ed was able to jump right into their new realm of lores and head straight in the direction of rocket science, one of the most advanced areas of study at the time, as well as the previously mentioned astrophysics and thermodynamics. He is an expert at divulging information that's hidden within even the toughest codes, and even uses them himself in his notes to hide his formulas from the average eye. He is familiar with, at the least, basic Greek mythology and classic literature as can be inferred from the references Ed makes throughout the anime. He also appears to be quite good at learning new languages, seeing as how he travelled across Europe for two years following new rocket technology, and probably had to pick up quite a few tongues to keep up. It can be assumed Ed is fluent in English (when he was speaking mentally to his "other" self in England, they could communicate perfectly), German, and Romanian, and probably knows a good amount of the languages used in nearby countries like France, Italy and possibly the Soviet Union.
Ed is also pretty mentally stable, and it takes a lot to make him break down after all of the awful and torturous experiences he's plowed through - he's learned to expect the unexpected, and he's very tough in comparison to most people. In a sense, a lot of Ed's resilience to trauma has to do with the fact that he's simply been a bit broken in, and he's less surprised when people he loves are hurt - he believes that he attracts this misfortune, anyway, and there's not much he can do to change that besides protecting them as best he can. Ed is also a quick-thinker and can analyze things around him mid-battle, should the need arise. He's a master at improvisation, whether it be technical or physical.
Emotional: Ed's love and resolve is his greatest emotional strength, enabling him to stay determined through the toughest challenges. His intense sturbbornness added to his calmer demeanor makes him more level-headed when addressing conflicts, and he's got enough self-confidence to believe that he'll most likely be successful when he tries something new. His considerable amount of empathy helps him relate to others, or at least to some extent.
Weaknesses
Mental: Ed is questionably socially stupid, as I mentioned in his personality section. He doesn't really know how to talk to people that well, and sometimes Ed can end up doing really stupid things that tend to outright contradict his own intelligence. At one point, he actually decides the best way to get Fritz Lang to talk to him is to push a rock into the middle of the road and hide in the bushes until the man's car came lumbering to the roadblock, then knock out the driver and sit down for a chat with the guy in the back seat. As you could probably tell, Ed is still a bit lacking when it comes to tact, as well as when his curiosity might be inappropriate. He often jumps right into things without fully thinking them through, and it's mostly pure luck that enables him to succeed when things should have blown up in his face instead. He's also likelier than his Brotherhood/manga counterpart to learn something on accident rather than intentionally, and then use it to his advantage later (ex: Brotherhood!Ed knows immediately how to transmute without a circle; this Ed doesn't even know he can do that until his twelfth birthday, when he accidentally heats a tub of water by pressing his hands together beforehand).
Emotional: Ed may have matured pretty decently by now, but he's prone to losing his temper regardless when his buttons are pushed, and he's still internally quite wild when it comes to his own sentiments, which can sometimes shove him into uncomfortable circumstances he could have avoided if he'd kept his cool. He's not quite as emotionally unstable as he used to be, but he is an Ed and he's prone to freaking out like one, and he definitely still Has a Lot of Feelings. He has some triggers, mainly corresponding to topics of human transmutation or the suffering and torture of those close to him, which can result in reactions varying from panic, acute stress, or violence. As well as this, he still has his own insecurities and fears that diminish his confidence in some ways, and he makes himself especially vulnerable to being hurt by the people he loves the most. The easiest way to manipulate Ed is to use the people he cares about against him; if you threaten him by threatening them, he'll listen to you if he doesn't have any other choice.
✧ ABILITIES/POWERS:
Ed is quite strong, especially for someone of his size, and his training from Izumi in martial arts adds on to that considerably, making him an excellent fighter. He's incredibly acrobatic in battle, often using moves like handsprings, roundhouse kicks, mid-air somersaults etc. while challenging his adversaries. He seems to be fairly light in weight (even when he had the automail, it didn't weigh him down too much when in the air), which is probably a given seeing as how he no longer has his automail and he is still very small. He's also very flexible and can use that to his advantage in combat, as well as for simpler things like trying to wriggle free of bonds. He's known to use the motto "all's fair in battle" and doesn't hold "honour" whilst fighting with a terribly high regard, though he does respect it more than he used to. However, Ed is still liable to use dirty tricks, provocation, diversions and the like to get the upper hand on his opponents if he believes it's proven necessary to win.
His endurance is possibly even more pronounced than his Brotherhood self, to an essentially unrealistic extent sometimes, and his extremely high tolerance for pain allows him to keep going even after he's been tossed around like a rag doll. For example, when Ed breaks into Laboratory 5, he fights the Amoured Brothers, then several chimeras, and then gets curb stomped by Envy when his automail arm breaks - despite all of that, he still has the energy to push around giant tubes of red liquid and potientally transmutate the bunch of prisoners I mentioned in his personality section. He was also able to go through grueling automail surgery in just a few months (he was eleven when he began the surgery, was still eleven by the time he and Al burnt down their house and left, and was still eleven at the end of during the months he spent studying for the State Alchemist exam at Shou Tucker's house), when according to Brotherhood/the manga, the average recovery period is 3 years. On the subject of his artificial limbs, Ed has almost no feel in them and can therefore use them to shield himself from attacks that would otherwise injure him or cause him too much strain. In Conqueror of Shamballa, he stops a gunshot to the head by blocking the bullet with his fingers, and another time, he breaks an attacker's arm by winding up the inside of his own arm to make it stronger, then wedging it around the man's arm to snap it.
Ed is one of the most well known alchemy prodigies of his time. He's amazingly gifted at it, and typically does not need to use a transmutation circle (sometimes he will use transmutation arrays, should he need one) like most alchemists, which on its own sets him on top of the majority - all Ed needs to do is bring his hands together. Ed is able to transmute matter by breaking down its composition and reforming it into something else, using the Law of Equivalent Exchange (the same as the law used for chemical equations in chemistry; the products of a reaction must be equal to the original materials, or the Law of Conservation of Mass). This is done through three steps: understanding the matter, decomposing it, and then reconstructing it again. Ed first used alchemy at 6 years old and managed to create a surprisingly detailed doll for Winry with the help of Al - a doll that Winry still had at fifteen/sixteen. There is not much of a limit as to what Ed can create using alchemy, and he can even transmutate organic matter such as plants, but that's as far as he can go with it. Another notable thing is that he can change the atomic composition of elements, such as carbon, to affect its ductility and maleability. His impressive skills are what got Ed past the state alchemist exams at twelve and onwards to becoming the youngest state alchemist in history. More information on alchemy can be found on the FMA Wiki (minus any information exclusive to Brotherhood/the manga, of course).
Ed is one of the few alchemists still alive to have seen the Gate of Truth, an experience one typically goes through after having performed human transmutation. Because Ed attempted human transmutation on his mother, he was tossed through the Gate, taken apart and then reassembled with a ton of information forced into his mind all at once. Much of this included (but is not limited to): visions of his past, visions of his future, dozens upon dozens of alchemical texts, formulas, arrays and designs from the FMA world and "our world", images from iconic catastrophes such as the Hindenburg Disaster, and several snapshots of photos from both WWI and WWII. If an alchemist can survive the Gate (though always with a price; Ed's leg, in his case), then they can recall much of the alchemical information given to them, and gain the ability to perform alchemy without a transmutation circle. By bringing his hands together, Ed can channel the energy through his body and circulate it, creating a transmutation circle using himself as the circle.
DISABILITIES/DISADVANTAGES:
Because this Ed has grown a little since he turned sixteen, the automail Winry fixed him with no longer fits and Hohenheim had to make replacements with the Other World's technology instead. While Hoho is pretty adept at making ridiculously advanced stuff (and prostheses have gained rapid demand after WWI), Ed's limbs are still nowhere near as good as his previous automail. They're quite bare (but he puts artificial skin over them), and the movements are more mechanical than natural, as his nerves are not attached to them the way the automail was. Essentially, while his automail used to be an advantage, these limbs are now a weakness for him. They are far easier to break or damage as they are frail enough for Ed to intentionally break himself with some effort, they have little dexterity, and doing fine work with his artificial hand is very tough for Ed. As for his leg, he appears to have difficulty walking up and down stairs and usually takes them with a slight limp, or he leans his weight on one leg to make it easier for him to take one step at a time.
Additionally, the prostheses are very uncomfortable for him to wear. There's a strap that buckles across his chest to keep his arm in place which I'd imagine would not be easy to breathe in, either - because of their discomfort, Ed takes off the prostheses when he sleeps. As well as this, his artificial limbs are barely water-resistant as best, so Ed has to bathe with them off as well (he obviously doesn't shower anymore; it's not very easy to take a shower with an arm and leg missing). As such, Ed is most likely incapable of living by himself due to his disabilities. Mundane tasks such as hand-washing clothes, or washing dishes, are obviously impossible for him to accomplish without damaging or rusting his prostheses, so unless he's living in an environment where such things would not be needed, Ed does require someone else around to help him, whether he likes it or not (read: he doesn't).
It can also be assumed that the prostheses are probably not very durable in cold or hot weather when even automail itself doesn't fare well in those cases, and would not work well at all under extreme weather conditions. Before Il Promenade, he was being treated as an outpatient at one of Munich's clinics and, should he have to keep the prostheses, Ed will probably require continued care at a clinic here instead. Part of this is due to the possibility of Ed experiencing Phantom Limb; a sensation of twisted pain in the "imaginary" limbs he is missing, that can range from a minor irritant to agonizing pain from day to day. This coupled with the stress of metal and leather on his skin makes medical care an essential for him.
Other than that disability, while Ed is still pretty strong, he's been living in basically the worst place possible economy-wise for quite a while. At best you could assume Ed ate well a few times a week (since Alfons was making money with his engineering, after all), but for the most part he's probably a little malnourished. In the apartment he shared will Alfons their kitchen was pretty bare, and there's a serious variation in how the two of them eat: Alfons is eating a decent meal in their kitchen one day; another day Ed is seen going to a Bier Hall and ordering something to eat; another, he and Noah are seen getting rations from a makeshift soup kitchen. Their food situation was pretty compromised and it's obvious Ed has lost a lot of weight from when he's seen putting on his prosthetic limbs in the morning - a lot of his muscle definition is gone, and you can see his ribs through his skin. Overall Ed has gotten weaker in the past two years, and that coupled with his consistent size disadvantage makes him a little less intimidating than he once was. It's clear he's not as strong anymore, by the fact that it's easier to overpower him with brute force.
As for his alchemy, Ed has the limitations that are prevalent in the skill to begin with; he cannot create something out of nothing at all, he cannot change one element into another unless their composition is similar and they fall under the same period on the Periodic table of the Elements (ie; he can transmute an alkali metal into another alkali metal, etc.), and he cannot perform human transmutation without serious consequences and an almost 100% chance of failure - he's literally the only alchemist ever known to have successfully performed human transmutation without use of a Philosopher's Stone, let alone the only one to have survived it. He's likely studied medical alchemy to some extent, but he's never performed it on himself or anyone else, so he'd be hard pressed to do it properly and effectively enough, so it's more of a last resort than anything else. Additionally, even if Ed does not use transmutation circles, he does need to bring his hands together to perform alchemy - take away his ability to use his hands, and he can no longer do so.
✧ TIME OF ARRIVAL: Day. He'd flip his shit if he woke up mute, haha.
✧ MASK DESIGN: This. Except instead of musical notes there would probably be transmutation arrays because he's a loser like that.
✧ PLACE OF SOLACE: His and Alfons's flat, preferrably. If that's not cool then I can easily change it. I'm asking for their apartment especially because it contains Ed's supply of extra prostheses, which he will need - believe me, there's not a chance he will go his entire visit without breaking the ones he has now in some way.
SAMPLES
✧ FIRST PERSON:
Alfons lost some of his papers today. Actually, it was pretty funny to watch him freak out like that, I thought he was really going to have a heart attack! Well - it was only funny because he found them later at the kitchen table where he'd been sitting, but he'd overlooked them. It's better than the time I spilled tea on his notes and tried to hide them so he didn't see, I guess, he noticed that right away. Doesn't make sense how he can just keep track of things when it's inconvenient for me, but then turns around and loses things himself! Jeez.
The girl that always comes by Gracia's flower shop told me I spoke German well for a foreigner today, but I dunno what she even meant by that. I get national pride or whatever, there's a damn lot of it here, but come on. How hard do they think it is to learn German? It's a hell of a lot easier than French is, anything is a blessing compared to that. People must not be trying very hard if they can't even get German right.
✧ THIRD PERSON:
(This is written as Ed's thoughts after his argument with Alfons about two-thirds of the way through the movie. After discovering that Alfons and the Münchner Raketenklub were building rockets for The Bad Guys, Ed tried to convince Alfons to refuse to continue the job, which was Alfons's big break in his career and his current sponsor. Alfons got angry and the following argument ended with him blowing up at Ed, hitting him, shouting at him and then running out. Ed also saw him cough up a fuckton of blood. So shit sucks for Ed in this sample - just keep that in mind.)
He was going to bruise. He didn't like the thought of that - really, he just wanted this to be over already, to forget that Alfons had even hit him in the first place. He knew Alfons well enough to know that he must have been feeling guilty about it by now, he always, always felt badly when he did something to hurt someone accidentally or intentionally. But... maybe Ed didn't know Alfons very well after all. He would have never thought Alfons would hit him that violently ever if at all, and (he swallowed hard around the pain in his throat at the thought) he hadn't known Alfons's sickness was as bad as it really was.
Ed wasn't stupid, he'd been fully aware of Alfons's chronic coughing, but he'd always told Ed that he was fine. Just a little ill, he would reassure with a smile, and Ed believed it. Who was actually in good health, living in Germany's worst economic crisis? Even Ed, who prided himself in his robust immune system, tended to get sick a lot now... and that wasn't saying anything about the constant state of general unhealthiness he carried with him. A virus could last weeks - months, even, in these conditions, and even if Alfons had more than a virus Ed had always figured that it wasn't that serious.
Gripping his bangs in one fist, Ed leaned over the bathroom counter and glared at himself through the mirror, staring distastefully at his reflection. Well, whatever Alfons had was serious, and it was Ed that hadn't noticed. The signs must have been there. The bruise on his cheek seemed ugly and stark against his skin, and automatically Ed's eyes kept trained to it as his stomach curled with guilt and disgust with himself. His mind flooded like a broken dam with memories of all the times that Alfons had coughed and turned away, just slightly, and Ed hadn't bothered to ask why. He knew now that it must have been because Alfons was trying to hide any blood that had come up, so why didn't he just ask? Another time... Ed had been washing their clothes, and there'd been tiny, rust-coloured drops on one of the sleeves of Alfons's shirts. He'd assumed it must have just been from a small cut, or even residue from the engines at the time - maybe it had made sense to think that way back then, but Ed couldn't see it that way. There were so many things he could have done, he could have just pushed until Alfons told him, so why didn't he? What if it was it too late now? Alfons was already angry at him, so what if Alfons wouldn't even talk to him?
Maybe if Ed had refused to use their doctor's money for the clinic all the time, Alfons wouldn't be this sick. The thought turned the uneasy curl of Ed's stomach into a sharp, nauseating twist, and he leaned more over the counter, squeezing his eyes shut against the glare of the bathroom lights. They'd never made much money, not in this economy, but it was enough for Ed to stay an outpatient when Alfons should have been using it. Did he intentionally let Ed take from him, or had he just been too kind to complain this whole time? Just when Alfons finally had enough money available to maybe treat whatever he was sick with, it was Ed who stole that from him. What had Ed done?
The sting from his bruise had spread during his emotional torment to the rest of his head, and now he was sporting a terrible headache. Withdrawing slowly from the counter, Ed gave himself one last weary once-over and reached to unlock the bathroom door. He wasn't going to get much sleep tonight, but he wasn't planning on sleeping anyway. Maybe Alfons would come back home, and Ed would have to wait up just in case he did.
It was the least he could do, at this point. He flicked off the lights, plunging the room into darkness and stepping back out into his bedroom to wait.
✧ QUESTION: This is just a personal one for the mirror. Seeing as how Ed would be going through the gate at the point of his arrival, would the actions he sees in the mirror be the course of the movie and onwards, or his everyday life in Germany as if nothing had ever happened? Please excuse my inventing a section for this, but his reactions will obviously majorly depend on what he sees.
APPLICATION
ilpromenade
PLAYER
✧ NAME: Marbles.
✧ LJ USERNAME: marburusu
✧ CONTACT (EMAIL, AIM, MSN, PLURK, ETC.): aim PhantomMarbles / plurk Marburusu
✧ CURRENT MUSE LIST: N/A.
CHARACTER
✧ NAME: Edward Elric.
✧ SERIES: Fullmetal Alchemist (Conqueror of Shamballa).
✧ HISTORY:
A summary of Edward's history in the first anime series, as well as the movie can be found here. However, it's lacking a little on Ed's time in between the series and the movie, so I'll elaborate a little here in bullet points:
• Edward moved from London, England to live in Munich, Germany with his father for at least a few weeks, researching possible ways to get back through the gate without using alchemy. Eventually, he found an interest in rocket science after reading Robert Goddard's A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes and left his father to pursue his research elsewhere in Europe.
• Keeping contact with his father in the meantime, Ed traveled through Europe and settled down in Romania, possibly joining the German Spaceflight Society of which his teacher was a member. This was probably the period in which his automail became too small and Hoheneheim made him his prosthetic replacements.
• This was where Edward met Alfons Heiderich for the first time - Alphonse Elric's other world counterpart. Coincidentally, he too was interested in rocketry and the two studied together under Dr. Hermann Oberth, Ed's previously mentioned professor. It's likely that Edward is well taught in rocket science (Astronomy specifically), astrophysics, and thermodynamics because of this, though his understanding of all subjects does not surpass anything that wasn't published before November of 1923 (unless said knowledge can be otherwise inferred from his canon).
• After completing their studies, Ed and Alfons moved back to Germany together, where they would share a flat after the sudden disappearance of Hohenheim. From there they continued their research at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, and their quest for a sponsor to fully build and design rockets with their team, the Münchner Raketenklub.
• The flat Ed and Alfons shared was quite small - entirely typical of their time period, and we only ever see one bedroom and one bed. Ed is shown sleeping in the bed on two occasions, and Alfons is seen collecting clothes from a dresser in the room at one point, but it's unclear as to whether or not they actually shared the bedroom. The bed is quite small (and there's only ever one pillow on it, only big enough for one person - the desk too only has one chair at it), and as I explain later on, Ed does not sleep with his prostheses on. Such an arrangement would probably be extremely uncomfortable for both of them, and additionally, it's possible they merely share the dresser instead of having two separate ones. Thus, I personally believe Alfons has a separate bedroom of his own, which would make their apartment somewhat larger.
If any additional information is required, please let me know!
✧ TIMELINE: Right as Alfons sends him through the gate in his kickass rocket-powered airplane that defies all science.
✧ PERSONALITY:
Oh boy. Edward Elric is... a special kind of guy. He's come a very, very long way from how he was at the beginning of his series, and he's emerged a different person in a lot of ways. He's accomplished his primary goal in life to return his borther to his body, and he knows that he's probably not going to ever get back to Amestris (he was kind of doing that at the point I've taken him from, but he doesn't actually know if he'll even make it through to the other side or not). Basically, this Ed has come to a point in his life where he is simply... okay. He might see Al again, he might not, but no matter what happens he's done what he's set out to do, and he can be happy with that.
The biggest change that's occurred in this Ed is probably his abrasiveness. He's definitely still pretty sassy and bold a lot of the time, and he's not afraid to kick some ass where he needs to, but the tragedy he's suffered throughout his life has really mellowed him down during the two years of living on the other side of the Gate. Ed is infinitely more polite than he used to be; he still eats a hell of a lot (Brotherhood confirms that he was eating/growing for two bodies for years, but that possibility is very unclear in the first anime and probably doesn't apply), but now Ed can eat like a normal person, at a close to normal pace. He even crosses his legs when sitting in a less casual atmosphere - yes, he can actually tell the difference now between when it's okay to be casual and when he should be more formal. Imagine that!
Ed is more mild-mannered than his Brotherhood self and rarely ever swears profusely (please note that I am using Romi Park as reference for all of his speech; I want to be as accurate to his speech patterns as possible, and that was how it was originally intended to be interpreted). Edward's language can be quite casual and occasionally a little crass, but his language mostly consists of generic Japanese insults that can easily range from "shoot" to "damn", and from "jerk" to "bastard" depending on what someone interprets from it. While some subs have him being more vulgar, I don't choose to perceive his insults as terribly crude myself, so please be aware that he will not be swearing up a storm.
However, Ed still enjoys poking fun at his friends (if he jokes about you, it's either an indicator that he's fond of you, or... that he really doesn't like you), and he won't refrain from teasing or getting saucier than he would with others. He's kept his sore spot about being called short, and it's one of those times where you can see Ed's old, bratty younger self come into play by the way he flips his shit. It's probably not a far stretch to say that his height is an even sorer spot for him now, seeing as how at an age where he's probably not going to grow any further, he's still really short unlike his Brotherhood counterpart. I would probably peg him at 5'2" at the tallest; almost all the women seen are at least a little taller than him and there are no grown men seen that are shorter than he is. Ouch.
Just because Ed's calmer overall doesn't mean he won't call you out if you're being a major asshole - he'll just do it with a little more class, with less screaming at you and pointing fingers and rubbing your face in the dirt. He's also more likely to try and reason with the enemy, if he thinks they won't take advantage of his pause, yet Ed wouldn't hesitate to hurt anyone that won't listen (as shown by when he breaks a man's arm for trying to kidnap a gypsy and threatening them with a gun. Also, Ed whips out a rocket on him). Despite this, Ed is very uncomfortable with going so far as killing anyone, but he's had to do it before and would probably do it again if he thought it was necessary. He really didn't take killing Greed very well at all, if his mental breakdown was any indication, and to make matters worse he had to kill his mom's homunculus - even if he'll never be happy with those decisions, Ed has realized that sometimes there's just no other way. Actually dying like... twice himself has helped him better understand the concept of death and come to terms with it, especially.
In fact, a lot of Ed's calmness can be attributed to the fact that he's simply accepted that his life sucks and there's nothing he can do about it, because no matter what he does, it's probably not going to get a whole lot better for him. He's surrounded by the concept of people he cares about being hurt or dying, so the ache of losing people is one he's sadly very familiar with by now. His view on killing people is a major difference between this Ed and his Brotherhood counterpart - they both share the opinion that life is sacred overall, though, and this Ed would still never use people's lives to create a Philosopher's Stone, if it came right down to it. Even during the series when the opportunity for one is right in his hands, and he has to choose between letting Lust kill Al or transmuting a bunch of prisoners and red water into a stone, no matter how much he hated himself for "betraying" Al he still couldn't make himself do it.
What should be noted that while Ed's Brotherhood/Manga counterpart is fairly masculine and matures more like a boy, this Ed is actually quite mentally androgynous (he identifies with male, of course, but it doesn't really affect how matures overall). He grows up along the way, but he's neither masculine nor feminine in doing so, in the sense that gender really does not have any reign on his own personality and how it's developed. Ed holds essentially no romantic attraction for anyone, especially in Conqueror of Shamballa; his distractions have shifted once again from his goal centered around Al, to trying to protect his world from intruders, leaving no time, in his mind, for romance of any sort. He's prone to getting easily flustered when people bring up romantic or sexual topics with him, and he will freak out (how badly depends on the situation) if he accidentally gropes someone, or even receives a lot of attention himself in that way, but unless it's brought up Ed never so much as thinks about romance or sex. As it is, I think he identifies closest with being highly demisexual, nearly asexual, which denotes a distinct lack of sexual attraction for anyone, unless under specific circumstances. Under such an opportunity, an intense emotional bond can be formed and result in romantic, and possibly, sexual interest. Though it isn't as though Ed himself ever thinks about his orientation, either; seeing as Ed gives no indication of a preference to any gender at all, whether he's heteroromantic, biromantic, homoromantic, etc is completely up for debate. Eventually, it's possible for him to become attracted to someone, but at this point he's spent his entire adolescence and most of his childhood not even considering attraction of any sort, and it's not likely that it will change for him very quickly.
Because there is next to no canon evidence in the 2003 anime that Ed is romantically interested in Winry, I choose to believe that if this Ed ever did have interest in her, it's not really there anymore - whether it's because he realized he thinks of her as just his friend, or because he realized it's never going to happen; either is possible, in that regard. So basically, I choose to believe that pairing is one-sided in his canon if it exists/ever existed at all. I'm sure someone will probably bring up the part in Conqueror of Shamballa where he blushes when Winry tackles him in a hug, so I'll clear that up right now: he hadn't actually seen her in two years and it's not like he wouldn't notice that she'd definitely grown up, especially seeing as how the first thing she did upon seeing him was squeeze him to death. It was definitely hammed up a little for the EdWin fans (the same as how Roy's predicament was hammed up with RoyEd subtext), but because the whole topic is left ambiguous, I'm going with the safest assumption and saying that it isn't going to happen.
Ed is a smart guy, and he definitely knows it - so in some ways, he can be pretty egotistical. However, just because he's prone to coming out on top when his wit or cleverness is involved doesn't mean he's very good with actually talking to people, and he listens more than he speaks now, for the most part. What you should understand is that Ed is a huge nerd; even at twelve years old, he would have been more excited about visiting a shiny, unfamiliar library than someone would be about going to Disneyland. He'll pick holing himself up with a pile of books over actually talking to people any day, and when he gets focused on reading it's a serious challenge to try and get his attention again; he's curious and loves to learn, if the topic interests him. He could probably be considered socially incompetent in a sense, because he didn't exactly grow up with any friends his age besides his brother and Winry, and definitely didn't have any chance at all from eleven years old onwards.
And while Ed clearly has a soft spot for little kids, he's not that good at all when it comes to dealing with older kids and teenagers. He has a tendency to relate things to science, since it's easier for him to express himself that way than it would be using normal people language. It's even clearer that Ed lacks social skills when you see that even without his little brother, he only had two friends throughout the course of the movie: Alfons, Alphonse's other world self who is just as big of a nerd as Ed is, and Noah, a gypsy and medium in the most inconvenient time period possible. So basically, people need to approach him if they want to be friends, because he's not very skilled at doing it himself.
Okay, now that I'm done with everything that makes him a dumbass, it's time to talk about some things that make him a great friend. Ed is unwaveringly loyal to the people he cares about, and he would never, ever abandon or betray them. He will do anything and everything in his power to protect his loved ones, uncaring of what consequences there might be for himself - serious injury, death, none of it matters to him if it means keeping his loved ones from harm. If something hurts them, Ed is extremely subjectable to blaming himself for it and will rarely actually forgive himself for his serious mistakes. Overall, despite his occasional bursts of ego, Ed really doesn't think he's a very good person and it shows in the careless way he treats his own wellbeing. He blames himself for the loss of Al's body when they transmutated their mother and agonizes over it throughout, rarely giving his own losses any thought at all in comparison. That much is obvious when he willingly transmutates himself at the end of the series to bring Alphonse back, showing that nothing is more important to Ed than his resolve and his love. He is usually fairly kind and generous to others, and on that basis, is generally likable despite his usual neutrality. He can be quite sympathetic towards people that have had a tough time when they don't deserve it and he can understand their own tragedies, but he always tries to get them back on their feet rather than dwelling - if a friends needs it, though, he'll be a shoulder for them to cry on too.
Like his Brotherhood self, Ed has some major family issues. His resentment towards his father for abandoning their family is even stronger, because not only did Hohenheim willingly transmutate entire cities to keep himself immortal, Hohenheim was extremely fickle with Ed and was just... genuinely not a good father or husband at all, while Brotherhood!Hohemheim actually did at least try to raise Ed properly. Hohenheim abandoned Ed time and time again throughout the series, with very little effort to actually reconcile with his son - now that Hohenheim is dead, Ed is only even more confused than ever about how his father felt. He does call Hohenheim "dad" now, since Hohenheim at least made him the articial limbs he needed after Winry's automail wouldn't fit him anymore, revealing that he wasn't completely an unreliable asshole, even if Ed hasn't really forgiven him for everything he did.
Alphonse, on the other hand, is the most important person in Ed's life. Without Alphonse, there's no way he'd have been able to handle all of the terrible things that have happened to him without breaking; Alphonse is his stronghold, his constant, his closest friend. Living without his little brother for two year has been really rough on Ed after how dependent he'd grown on Al over their course of their relationship, but no matter what he's still protective of Al and would give up his own life without a second thought if he had to. Winry and Pinako are family to Ed as well, and while he still teases them more than Al it's clear he's incredibly grateful for everything they've done for him and for just being there whenever he needs them, and Winry is still one of his most trusted friends. Also among Ed's most treasured people is his friend Alfons, and though some of his affinity for him stemmed originally from his physical likeliness to Alphonse, it's clear to him that Alfons is an entirely different person in his own right - one that Ed holds very, very dear, especially with recent developments.
As for Roy - he's held some less serious resentment and begrudging respect towards the man, but Ed saw everything Roy did through the stubborn mindset of his younger self. Now that Ed has had two years to consider their relationship, he's likely realized that Roy only ever had good intentions, and that a lot of what happened between them was misunderstood on his part. It's clear from the more amicable manner with which he treats Roy in the movie that he's gotten over their past scuffles and has come to consider Roy a friend - especially because the military desk no longer stands between them, and because it's now an adult-to-adult relationship (rather than adult-to-teenager or officer-to-subordinate). Despite that, Ed still makes jokes or remarks at Roy's expense, though it's clearly only meant to be teasing rather than insulting. Riza, on the other hand, Ed has always held a (slightly terrified) respect for and will continue to uphold that during their stay in Promenade.
Strengths
Mental: Mentally, Ed is extremely intelligent and is absolutely considered a genius in his own right, and when it comes to intelligence in alchemy, Ed is terrifyingly smart with what he does. He's often able to observe another alchemist's performance and determine what type of alchemy they're using -- and how -- from what he sees; he does this when Lyra "liquified the air around her, reduced its volume, and then all at once vaporized it again, producing a shockwave" at twelve years old early in the series. Thus, once Ed understands these methods of alchemy, he is typically capable of imitating it himself, and indeed does so on several occasions. His prowess with actually performing alchemy aside, Ed was able to read advanced texts at a young age (he and Al claim to their mother than they taught themselves alchemy using their father's books; they were 6 and 5 years old at the time), and was able to pass the State Alchemy Exam also at twelve years of age, which is known for being excruciatingly difficult and rarely passed even by most adults.
Despite having an official school education roughly equivalent to third or fourth grade, Ed takes all new information in stride and often understands it better than the people or materials that taught it to him in the first place. He has a firm and resolute knowledge of Biology and Chemistry, and in the Other World, where alchemy is almost obsolete, Ed was able to jump right into their new realm of lores and head straight in the direction of rocket science, one of the most advanced areas of study at the time, as well as the previously mentioned astrophysics and thermodynamics. He is an expert at divulging information that's hidden within even the toughest codes, and even uses them himself in his notes to hide his formulas from the average eye. He is familiar with, at the least, basic Greek mythology and classic literature as can be inferred from the references Ed makes throughout the anime. He also appears to be quite good at learning new languages, seeing as how he travelled across Europe for two years following new rocket technology, and probably had to pick up quite a few tongues to keep up. It can be assumed Ed is fluent in English (when he was speaking mentally to his "other" self in England, they could communicate perfectly), German, and Romanian, and probably knows a good amount of the languages used in nearby countries like France, Italy and possibly the Soviet Union.
Ed is also pretty mentally stable, and it takes a lot to make him break down after all of the awful and torturous experiences he's plowed through - he's learned to expect the unexpected, and he's very tough in comparison to most people. In a sense, a lot of Ed's resilience to trauma has to do with the fact that he's simply been a bit broken in, and he's less surprised when people he loves are hurt - he believes that he attracts this misfortune, anyway, and there's not much he can do to change that besides protecting them as best he can. Ed is also a quick-thinker and can analyze things around him mid-battle, should the need arise. He's a master at improvisation, whether it be technical or physical.
Emotional: Ed's love and resolve is his greatest emotional strength, enabling him to stay determined through the toughest challenges. His intense sturbbornness added to his calmer demeanor makes him more level-headed when addressing conflicts, and he's got enough self-confidence to believe that he'll most likely be successful when he tries something new. His considerable amount of empathy helps him relate to others, or at least to some extent.
Weaknesses
Mental: Ed is questionably socially stupid, as I mentioned in his personality section. He doesn't really know how to talk to people that well, and sometimes Ed can end up doing really stupid things that tend to outright contradict his own intelligence. At one point, he actually decides the best way to get Fritz Lang to talk to him is to push a rock into the middle of the road and hide in the bushes until the man's car came lumbering to the roadblock, then knock out the driver and sit down for a chat with the guy in the back seat. As you could probably tell, Ed is still a bit lacking when it comes to tact, as well as when his curiosity might be inappropriate. He often jumps right into things without fully thinking them through, and it's mostly pure luck that enables him to succeed when things should have blown up in his face instead. He's also likelier than his Brotherhood/manga counterpart to learn something on accident rather than intentionally, and then use it to his advantage later (ex: Brotherhood!Ed knows immediately how to transmute without a circle; this Ed doesn't even know he can do that until his twelfth birthday, when he accidentally heats a tub of water by pressing his hands together beforehand).
Emotional: Ed may have matured pretty decently by now, but he's prone to losing his temper regardless when his buttons are pushed, and he's still internally quite wild when it comes to his own sentiments, which can sometimes shove him into uncomfortable circumstances he could have avoided if he'd kept his cool. He's not quite as emotionally unstable as he used to be, but he is an Ed and he's prone to freaking out like one, and he definitely still Has a Lot of Feelings. He has some triggers, mainly corresponding to topics of human transmutation or the suffering and torture of those close to him, which can result in reactions varying from panic, acute stress, or violence. As well as this, he still has his own insecurities and fears that diminish his confidence in some ways, and he makes himself especially vulnerable to being hurt by the people he loves the most. The easiest way to manipulate Ed is to use the people he cares about against him; if you threaten him by threatening them, he'll listen to you if he doesn't have any other choice.
✧ ABILITIES/POWERS:
Ed is quite strong, especially for someone of his size, and his training from Izumi in martial arts adds on to that considerably, making him an excellent fighter. He's incredibly acrobatic in battle, often using moves like handsprings, roundhouse kicks, mid-air somersaults etc. while challenging his adversaries. He seems to be fairly light in weight (even when he had the automail, it didn't weigh him down too much when in the air), which is probably a given seeing as how he no longer has his automail and he is still very small. He's also very flexible and can use that to his advantage in combat, as well as for simpler things like trying to wriggle free of bonds. He's known to use the motto "all's fair in battle" and doesn't hold "honour" whilst fighting with a terribly high regard, though he does respect it more than he used to. However, Ed is still liable to use dirty tricks, provocation, diversions and the like to get the upper hand on his opponents if he believes it's proven necessary to win.
His endurance is possibly even more pronounced than his Brotherhood self, to an essentially unrealistic extent sometimes, and his extremely high tolerance for pain allows him to keep going even after he's been tossed around like a rag doll. For example, when Ed breaks into Laboratory 5, he fights the Amoured Brothers, then several chimeras, and then gets curb stomped by Envy when his automail arm breaks - despite all of that, he still has the energy to push around giant tubes of red liquid and potientally transmutate the bunch of prisoners I mentioned in his personality section. He was also able to go through grueling automail surgery in just a few months (he was eleven when he began the surgery, was still eleven by the time he and Al burnt down their house and left, and was still eleven at the end of during the months he spent studying for the State Alchemist exam at Shou Tucker's house), when according to Brotherhood/the manga, the average recovery period is 3 years. On the subject of his artificial limbs, Ed has almost no feel in them and can therefore use them to shield himself from attacks that would otherwise injure him or cause him too much strain. In Conqueror of Shamballa, he stops a gunshot to the head by blocking the bullet with his fingers, and another time, he breaks an attacker's arm by winding up the inside of his own arm to make it stronger, then wedging it around the man's arm to snap it.
Ed is one of the most well known alchemy prodigies of his time. He's amazingly gifted at it, and typically does not need to use a transmutation circle (sometimes he will use transmutation arrays, should he need one) like most alchemists, which on its own sets him on top of the majority - all Ed needs to do is bring his hands together. Ed is able to transmute matter by breaking down its composition and reforming it into something else, using the Law of Equivalent Exchange (the same as the law used for chemical equations in chemistry; the products of a reaction must be equal to the original materials, or the Law of Conservation of Mass). This is done through three steps: understanding the matter, decomposing it, and then reconstructing it again. Ed first used alchemy at 6 years old and managed to create a surprisingly detailed doll for Winry with the help of Al - a doll that Winry still had at fifteen/sixteen. There is not much of a limit as to what Ed can create using alchemy, and he can even transmutate organic matter such as plants, but that's as far as he can go with it. Another notable thing is that he can change the atomic composition of elements, such as carbon, to affect its ductility and maleability. His impressive skills are what got Ed past the state alchemist exams at twelve and onwards to becoming the youngest state alchemist in history. More information on alchemy can be found on the FMA Wiki (minus any information exclusive to Brotherhood/the manga, of course).
Ed is one of the few alchemists still alive to have seen the Gate of Truth, an experience one typically goes through after having performed human transmutation. Because Ed attempted human transmutation on his mother, he was tossed through the Gate, taken apart and then reassembled with a ton of information forced into his mind all at once. Much of this included (but is not limited to): visions of his past, visions of his future, dozens upon dozens of alchemical texts, formulas, arrays and designs from the FMA world and "our world", images from iconic catastrophes such as the Hindenburg Disaster, and several snapshots of photos from both WWI and WWII. If an alchemist can survive the Gate (though always with a price; Ed's leg, in his case), then they can recall much of the alchemical information given to them, and gain the ability to perform alchemy without a transmutation circle. By bringing his hands together, Ed can channel the energy through his body and circulate it, creating a transmutation circle using himself as the circle.
DISABILITIES/DISADVANTAGES:
Because this Ed has grown a little since he turned sixteen, the automail Winry fixed him with no longer fits and Hohenheim had to make replacements with the Other World's technology instead. While Hoho is pretty adept at making ridiculously advanced stuff (and prostheses have gained rapid demand after WWI), Ed's limbs are still nowhere near as good as his previous automail. They're quite bare (but he puts artificial skin over them), and the movements are more mechanical than natural, as his nerves are not attached to them the way the automail was. Essentially, while his automail used to be an advantage, these limbs are now a weakness for him. They are far easier to break or damage as they are frail enough for Ed to intentionally break himself with some effort, they have little dexterity, and doing fine work with his artificial hand is very tough for Ed. As for his leg, he appears to have difficulty walking up and down stairs and usually takes them with a slight limp, or he leans his weight on one leg to make it easier for him to take one step at a time.
Additionally, the prostheses are very uncomfortable for him to wear. There's a strap that buckles across his chest to keep his arm in place which I'd imagine would not be easy to breathe in, either - because of their discomfort, Ed takes off the prostheses when he sleeps. As well as this, his artificial limbs are barely water-resistant as best, so Ed has to bathe with them off as well (he obviously doesn't shower anymore; it's not very easy to take a shower with an arm and leg missing). As such, Ed is most likely incapable of living by himself due to his disabilities. Mundane tasks such as hand-washing clothes, or washing dishes, are obviously impossible for him to accomplish without damaging or rusting his prostheses, so unless he's living in an environment where such things would not be needed, Ed does require someone else around to help him, whether he likes it or not (read: he doesn't).
It can also be assumed that the prostheses are probably not very durable in cold or hot weather when even automail itself doesn't fare well in those cases, and would not work well at all under extreme weather conditions. Before Il Promenade, he was being treated as an outpatient at one of Munich's clinics and, should he have to keep the prostheses, Ed will probably require continued care at a clinic here instead. Part of this is due to the possibility of Ed experiencing Phantom Limb; a sensation of twisted pain in the "imaginary" limbs he is missing, that can range from a minor irritant to agonizing pain from day to day. This coupled with the stress of metal and leather on his skin makes medical care an essential for him.
Other than that disability, while Ed is still pretty strong, he's been living in basically the worst place possible economy-wise for quite a while. At best you could assume Ed ate well a few times a week (since Alfons was making money with his engineering, after all), but for the most part he's probably a little malnourished. In the apartment he shared will Alfons their kitchen was pretty bare, and there's a serious variation in how the two of them eat: Alfons is eating a decent meal in their kitchen one day; another day Ed is seen going to a Bier Hall and ordering something to eat; another, he and Noah are seen getting rations from a makeshift soup kitchen. Their food situation was pretty compromised and it's obvious Ed has lost a lot of weight from when he's seen putting on his prosthetic limbs in the morning - a lot of his muscle definition is gone, and you can see his ribs through his skin. Overall Ed has gotten weaker in the past two years, and that coupled with his consistent size disadvantage makes him a little less intimidating than he once was. It's clear he's not as strong anymore, by the fact that it's easier to overpower him with brute force.
As for his alchemy, Ed has the limitations that are prevalent in the skill to begin with; he cannot create something out of nothing at all, he cannot change one element into another unless their composition is similar and they fall under the same period on the Periodic table of the Elements (ie; he can transmute an alkali metal into another alkali metal, etc.), and he cannot perform human transmutation without serious consequences and an almost 100% chance of failure - he's literally the only alchemist ever known to have successfully performed human transmutation without use of a Philosopher's Stone, let alone the only one to have survived it. He's likely studied medical alchemy to some extent, but he's never performed it on himself or anyone else, so he'd be hard pressed to do it properly and effectively enough, so it's more of a last resort than anything else. Additionally, even if Ed does not use transmutation circles, he does need to bring his hands together to perform alchemy - take away his ability to use his hands, and he can no longer do so.
✧ TIME OF ARRIVAL: Day. He'd flip his shit if he woke up mute, haha.
✧ MASK DESIGN: This. Except instead of musical notes there would probably be transmutation arrays because he's a loser like that.
✧ PLACE OF SOLACE: His and Alfons's flat, preferrably. If that's not cool then I can easily change it. I'm asking for their apartment especially because it contains Ed's supply of extra prostheses, which he will need - believe me, there's not a chance he will go his entire visit without breaking the ones he has now in some way.
SAMPLES
✧ FIRST PERSON:
Alfons lost some of his papers today. Actually, it was pretty funny to watch him freak out like that, I thought he was really going to have a heart attack! Well - it was only funny because he found them later at the kitchen table where he'd been sitting, but he'd overlooked them. It's better than the time I spilled tea on his notes and tried to hide them so he didn't see, I guess, he noticed that right away. Doesn't make sense how he can just keep track of things when it's inconvenient for me, but then turns around and loses things himself! Jeez.
The girl that always comes by Gracia's flower shop told me I spoke German well for a foreigner today, but I dunno what she even meant by that. I get national pride or whatever, there's a damn lot of it here, but come on. How hard do they think it is to learn German? It's a hell of a lot easier than French is, anything is a blessing compared to that. People must not be trying very hard if they can't even get German right.
✧ THIRD PERSON:
(This is written as Ed's thoughts after his argument with Alfons about two-thirds of the way through the movie. After discovering that Alfons and the Münchner Raketenklub were building rockets for The Bad Guys, Ed tried to convince Alfons to refuse to continue the job, which was Alfons's big break in his career and his current sponsor. Alfons got angry and the following argument ended with him blowing up at Ed, hitting him, shouting at him and then running out. Ed also saw him cough up a fuckton of blood. So shit sucks for Ed in this sample - just keep that in mind.)
He was going to bruise. He didn't like the thought of that - really, he just wanted this to be over already, to forget that Alfons had even hit him in the first place. He knew Alfons well enough to know that he must have been feeling guilty about it by now, he always, always felt badly when he did something to hurt someone accidentally or intentionally. But... maybe Ed didn't know Alfons very well after all. He would have never thought Alfons would hit him that violently ever if at all, and (he swallowed hard around the pain in his throat at the thought) he hadn't known Alfons's sickness was as bad as it really was.
Ed wasn't stupid, he'd been fully aware of Alfons's chronic coughing, but he'd always told Ed that he was fine. Just a little ill, he would reassure with a smile, and Ed believed it. Who was actually in good health, living in Germany's worst economic crisis? Even Ed, who prided himself in his robust immune system, tended to get sick a lot now... and that wasn't saying anything about the constant state of general unhealthiness he carried with him. A virus could last weeks - months, even, in these conditions, and even if Alfons had more than a virus Ed had always figured that it wasn't that serious.
Gripping his bangs in one fist, Ed leaned over the bathroom counter and glared at himself through the mirror, staring distastefully at his reflection. Well, whatever Alfons had was serious, and it was Ed that hadn't noticed. The signs must have been there. The bruise on his cheek seemed ugly and stark against his skin, and automatically Ed's eyes kept trained to it as his stomach curled with guilt and disgust with himself. His mind flooded like a broken dam with memories of all the times that Alfons had coughed and turned away, just slightly, and Ed hadn't bothered to ask why. He knew now that it must have been because Alfons was trying to hide any blood that had come up, so why didn't he just ask? Another time... Ed had been washing their clothes, and there'd been tiny, rust-coloured drops on one of the sleeves of Alfons's shirts. He'd assumed it must have just been from a small cut, or even residue from the engines at the time - maybe it had made sense to think that way back then, but Ed couldn't see it that way. There were so many things he could have done, he could have just pushed until Alfons told him, so why didn't he? What if it was it too late now? Alfons was already angry at him, so what if Alfons wouldn't even talk to him?
Maybe if Ed had refused to use their doctor's money for the clinic all the time, Alfons wouldn't be this sick. The thought turned the uneasy curl of Ed's stomach into a sharp, nauseating twist, and he leaned more over the counter, squeezing his eyes shut against the glare of the bathroom lights. They'd never made much money, not in this economy, but it was enough for Ed to stay an outpatient when Alfons should have been using it. Did he intentionally let Ed take from him, or had he just been too kind to complain this whole time? Just when Alfons finally had enough money available to maybe treat whatever he was sick with, it was Ed who stole that from him. What had Ed done?
The sting from his bruise had spread during his emotional torment to the rest of his head, and now he was sporting a terrible headache. Withdrawing slowly from the counter, Ed gave himself one last weary once-over and reached to unlock the bathroom door. He wasn't going to get much sleep tonight, but he wasn't planning on sleeping anyway. Maybe Alfons would come back home, and Ed would have to wait up just in case he did.
It was the least he could do, at this point. He flicked off the lights, plunging the room into darkness and stepping back out into his bedroom to wait.
✧ QUESTION: This is just a personal one for the mirror. Seeing as how Ed would be going through the gate at the point of his arrival, would the actions he sees in the mirror be the course of the movie and onwards, or his everyday life in Germany as if nothing had ever happened? Please excuse my inventing a section for this, but his reactions will obviously majorly depend on what he sees.