Greed (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Greed is one of the Seven Homunculi and a villain from the Fullmetal Alchemist series. He is notable among his fellow homunculi for his independance, which led him to betray Father and work on his own. He is first introduced as an anti-villain, then becomes a full-fledged villain and ultimately an anti-hero, following his rebirth in the body of the Xinese prince Ling Yao.

Appearance
Greed looks like a tall, well-built and muscular man with dark hair, a pointed face and sharp pointed teeth. He wears the black clothing common among the homunculi, plus a black jacket with a white fur-collar and a pair of sunglasses, and like his fellow homunculi, (minus Wrath and Pride) he has red lines across his body; in his case the torso. Greed has the homunculi's distinctive Ouroboros mark on the back of his left hand.

When he transforms completely into carbon, Greed assumes what can be called his true form. His body becomes entirely black and metal-like and the two red lines that run all over his body are expanded all over his face, crossing his eyes.

After being destroyed and re-assimilated by Father, Greed is reborn in the body of Ling Yao. Thus he now has the appearance of his host, though his eyes become red, an Ouroboros mark appears on his left hand and his facial features are altered, looking older and more akin to that of his previous aspect. When Greed is in control of Ling's body his hair cover his right eye, while when Ling takes it back, his hair cover his left eye. Also contrary to his host, Greed is almost always depicted with his eyes open.

Personality
As his name implies, Greed is extremely avaricious and full of an unquenchable thirst for possession. He covets "everything that the world can offer," including money, women and political power. This thirst for wealth has the side effect of giving him a firmer personality than his fellow homunculi, prompting him to defect from their ranks, has he felt he would never gain anything for himself by following Father's command.

Thus and as Edward Elric puts it in, Greed is "the only homunculus who has learnt to think for himself." In spite of his demanding personality, he his rather polite and chivalrous (he refuses to fight against women) and has a laid-back attitude. He usually offers bargains and equivalent exchanges to gain what he wants and he acts in a friendly (though sarcastic) way even towards foes. One must not be fooled though, he is bent on gaining whatever he has set his sight on, not taking "no" for an answer and fighting ruthlessly to obtain and keep it. When confronting people he dislikes, he becomes clearly insulting and bent on killing them, stating that he is so greedy that he wants their lives.

Being greedy, he also values his possessions more than he demonstrates it, and holds those who swear their alliegances to him in high regards, being seen kind and complimenting towards his chimera underlings. He eventually becomes friend with Ling, though he frequently rants when Ling take the control of their body, which he considers as his own alone.

Powers and Abilities
Being one of the Seven Homunculi, Greed has above-average strength, speed and durability, and he is able to regenerate his body even when mortaly wounded or partially destroyed. As such, the only way to fully destroy him is to kill him more times than the Philosoper's Stone which serves as his core can regenerate him.

His most prominent power, the "Ultimate Shield" enables him to rearrange the carbon cells in his body to make his limbs or his entire self as hard as diamond. He usually uses this power on his foreharms (which then become clawed) to use them as weapons and shields, becoming able to impale people with his bare hand and to block sword strikes. When he turns his entire body into this diamond-like matter, he becomes virtually immune to any attack and not even an explosion can hinder him. Greed is also able to rearrange the carbon in his cells the other way around, to make his body as friable and weak as charcoal, but he obviously doesn't use it often.

The first Greed
In the manga and the second anime series (called Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) Greed is introduced when the primary protagonists Edward and Alphonse Elric, go to the town of Dublith to visit their master Izumi Curtis. At first, a strange lizard-man named Bido approaches them disguised as a beggar but soon begins pestering them, eventually taking Alphonse's helmet off to confirm that his armour is empty, and reports this to his boss, Greed. Greed then orders his other underlings to bring Alphonse to﻿ him in his bar the "Devil's Nest."

Several of Greed's men lure Alphonse into a deserted factory and after a short skirmish, manage to capture him when a woman named Martel enters his armour and takes control of his body from the inside. It is then revealed that all of Greed's underlings are former soldiers who were fused with animals and turned into chimeras after a nearly fatal injury. Greed then arrives before Alphonse, who recognizes his Ouroboros mark, and reveals that he was told by his informants about someone whose soul was fixed on an armour. Believing it to be the key to the eternal life he covets, Greed demands to know what Alphonse did to seal his soul on an inanimate object but Alphonse doesn't know, as it was Edward who performed the ritual. Izumi then comes to Alphonse's rescue but she cannot harm Greed, whose Ultimate Shield breaks her knuckes when she punches him.

Edward then confronts Greed, refusing to listen to his conditions, and attacks him. Greed however is unimpressed by Edwards insults and he turns into his Ultimate Shield form, easily overpowering his enemy. Just as Edwards figures how to transmute Greed's carbon to undo the Ultimate Shield and harm his enemy, several soldiers led by the country ruler King Bradley storm into Greed's hideout, forcing the homunculus to flee. Bradley kills almost all of Greed's chimera underlings and confronts Greed himself, easily beating him up to submission by striking right into his weak points. Bradley then reveals to be the homunculus Wrath, and captures Greed, bringing him to Father's lair. Father asks Greed to work for him once again and upon his refusal, he plunges Greed into a pool of acid, destroying his body and absorbing back the Philosopher's Stone that constitued his core. Greed is destroyed while laughing maniacally, wishing that ingesting him back will cause Father a case of diarrhea.

The second Greed
When Edward, Alphonse and the Xinese prince Ling Yao enter Father's lair, they attempt to take him down but only to get quickly defeated and subdued by Envy and Gluttony. Seeing Ling's remarkable energy, Father injects Greed's Philosopher's Stone into his bloodstream, hoping to turn him into a human-based reincarnation of Greed. Normally, Ling's and Greed's souls were to fight for dominance until only one would prevail, but Ling willingly relinquished his body to let Greed possess him, hoping to gain enough power to become the next emperor of Xing. (Much to Greed's astonishment.) Thus there is now two personas in the same body. But although Greed has gained complete control, Ling's soul remains intact and ready to regain control of his body at the first occasion.

To the Elrics' horror a new Greed is born, having no memories of his previous existence and being completely devoted to Father. Greed is then appointed as Father's bodyguard, acting as a sentinel and killing any intruder who ventures in the villain's subterranean lair.

However, Bido eventually manages to sneak into Father's lair and gets spotted by Greed, who tracks him down to kill him. Bido recognises Greed's laughter and mannerisms and manages to catch his attention by reciting his greedy motto by heart. ("I want money, I want power, I want women, I want everything this world can give me!") He then feigns to remember Bido to catch him offguard and remorselessly kills him. However, spilling his former friend's blood causes Greed's mind to be flooded by blurry memories of his previous life. He tries to deny them saying that he is not this Greed but Ling berates him, saying that if that was the case he would remember nothing, and Greed's mind breaks down.

Second defection
In a semi-conscious state, Greed storms into the presidential palace, attacking Wrath in a rage and demanding to know why he remembers him slaughtering his team. The two homunculi do battle and Greed eventually flees when Wrath gains the upper-hand. Ling then assumes control and flees to a deserted hideout in which he stumbles upon Edward Elric and his two chimera associates Darius and Heinkel.

Ling then tells Edward everything he knows about the Seven Homunculi but Greed soon takes control of his body again and takes his leave. Edward asks him to join forces with them, which he accepts on the condition that they become his underlings. The protagonists then spend the next six months preparing a nation-wide transmutation circle able to counter the one that Father is preparing. From then on, Greed and Ling appear to have come to an agreement, as Ling is now able to temporarily take control of his body more easily. (Though he has to ask for permission at first.)

Greed, Edward, Darius and Heinkel later come across Alphonse whose armour is manipulated by Pride. Greed recognises his elder sibling who attacks them alongside Gluttony. Lan Fan and Fu, Ling Yao's bodyguards, then come to their rescue and kill Gluttony several times, while Edward causes a blackout to make Pride's shadow disappear. Pride eventually devours Gluttony to gain his powers and soon overwhelms them all, until Alphonse restrains him, enabling Hohenheim to trap them both in a gigantic dome of earth. Following Pride's defeat, Greed escapes and heads toward Central City, planning to kill Father and claim the world as his own.

The final battle
On his way to Father's lair, Greed witnesses the return of Wrath and states that he now covets his sibling's life. He attacks Wrath and fights on par with him, as Wrath has lost his signature military sabre and fights with a pair of daggers with which he is less familiar. Wrath eventually reveals his Ultimate Eye and gains the upper-hand. Greed is then helped by Fu, who located his evil aura. After Fu is killed by Wrath, who gets wounded inthe process, an angry Greed strikes him, destroying the Ultimate Eye and pushing his foe into a moat. Greed then turns to his Ultimate Shield form and dispatches the soldiers who were threatening the troops of Briggs. (Said troops having taken over the Central Military Headquarters and killed many of the corrupt officials who rule the country following Father's command.)

Greed reappears in Father's throne room as the latter is about to activate the nation-wide transmutation circle by using the Elrics, Hohenheim, Izumi Curtis and Roy Mustang. (five alchemist who have seen the Truth, the source of all alchemic power and knowledge of the universe, which Father plans to absorb to become the new God of the World.) Greed attacks Father to kill him and claim the godhood that Father covets for himself, but Father easily subdues him and successfully becomes "God."

Fortunately, Hohenheim manages to activate a counter-ritual he devised, and Father finds himself unable to contain the Truth within himself, prompting him to flee towards the surface with everyone tailing him. As Greed doesn't master alchemy, he reaches the surface on his own, spotting the Armstrong siblings, Lan Fan, the chimeras and other allies near Wrath's corpse. He curses Wrath for having passed away with a smile and warns the other about Father's might before chasing after him. As everyone is fighting against Father, Greed is seen marvelling on the villain's incredible power before attacking him to claim it as his own. Having spotted him, Father lets himself be struck to absorb his offspring back once again, but it appears that Greed was counting on it to allow Edward to land a decisive blow.

Greed eventually lets Father absorb him, despite Ling Yao's attempts to keep him inside his body. Upon entering Father's body, Greed uses his power to turn Father into the weakest form of charcoal, enabling Edward to finish the villain off once and for all, but not before Greed gets killed by his angry creator, who rants curses about ungrateful children, to which Greed replies that this is merely his crisis of adolescence. Greed vanishes, while reflecting upon the value that Ling and all of his friends had in his life.

In the 2003 anime
In the 2003 anime series, Greed is the second oldest homunculus, who was created when Dante, the main villain of the series' radically different stroyline, tried to revive one of her former lovers. Once again, Greed betrayed his master to live for himself and quench his greed, and established his headquarters in the Devil's Nest bar, surrounding himself with many chimeras.

He first tries to get (the 2003 anime counterpart of) Wrath to join his side but not to avail. He later captures Alphonse Elric to learn how he bound his soul to his armour, as he does in the manga. Once again, his lair his invaded and his chimeras are killed, but this time by Lust and Gluttony. Greed is then manipulated by Dante, so that he would be percieved as her murderer, before getting weakened enough for Edward to kill him. With his dying breath, Greeds reveals how to kill a homunculus.