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Envy | Fullmetal Alchemist (re-app)

[greenwithme.livejournal.com]

Of course, Envy's “default” human form is by no means his “true” form. In reality, Envy's actual body is a huge, green-scaled, lizard-like creature with eight limbs and lank hair. His body is covered in carbuncles which resemble hollow-eyed, gape-mouthed faces. These are the souls of the people of Xerxes that compose his Philosopher's Stone. They constantly scream and cry in agony. Envy is exceedingly powerful in this form, able to lay waste to his opponents with surprising ease by either crushing them underfoot, slapping them about with his tail, or (in Ed's case) simply devouring them. It should be noted that his mass is condensed when he's in his “default” human form, meaning that despite looking small, he weighs the same as his “true” form. Ling noticed this during their fight by the unusually deep footprints left behind when Envy was thrown to the ground.

But even that isn't Envy's true form. His true true form is that of a small, parasitic leech-like worm. This form is revealed in episode 43 when Dr. Marcoh manages to deplete all the souls composing Envy's Philosopher Stone with a special alchemical technique. When his body disintegrates, only a small leech-thing is left behind. But he's not completely defenseless: Envy took control of Yoki's body by attaching himself to the back of the man's neck. While this allowed him full control over Yoki's motor functions, Yoki was still able to think and speak under his own power. In this state, Envy could have easily been killed, but May Chang kept him alive in order to learn the secret of immortality. He later regains his human body by absorbing several mannequin soldiers of the Immortal Legion, thus replenishing his supply of souls within his Philosopher Stone core.

While everyone uses male pronouns to refer to Envy, Word of God states that “he actually possesses an ambiguous gender”. Neither Envy himself nor anyone else knows what his true gender may be. I've conjectured that in his “default” human form, Envy is actually a neuter male, much like the mannequin soldiers of the Immortal Legion, so while he may lean more toward a masculine figure, he possesses no external genitalia or reproductive organs. In fact, all the Homunculi are sterile, hence King Bradley's (Wrath's) inability to produce offspring (Selim is not his biological son, and is actually the Homunculus, Pride).

Additional Links:
Fullmetal Alchemist Wiki – Homunculi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fullmetal_Alchemist_characters#Homunculi)
TV Tropes – Characters: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/FullmetalAlchemist) Click on the folder for Homunculi