Alphonse Elric

For most of the story Alphonse inhabits a hulking suit of gunmetal steel that ranks among the tallest frames in the series, edging out giants like Captain Buccaneer and Major Armstrong while leaving his older brother barely reaching his elbow. That sheer size fuels a recurring joke in which strangers assume he, rather than Edward, must be the celebrated Fullmetal Alchemist, or mistake him for the elder sibling or even a parent. A pointed horn juts from the brow of his helmet, which frames half-moon eye slits above a fanged, jutting chin, and a pale ribbon trails from the crown toward the small of the back, a flourish Al fondly regards as his hair until a Briggs skirmish shears it short.

Rows of conical spikes stud his shoulders, with smaller barbs at the elbows, knees, and feet, and a red Flamel painted on one shoulder marks his training under Izumi Curtis. The armor's true anchor sits hidden within: a lining of chain mail and a rune drawn in Edward's own blood, the seal that keeps his soul fixed to the metal. His original human self, glimpsed in flashbacks, is a fair, golden-haired boy who already stood taller than Ed and favored their mother far more than their father.

Where Edward is brash and quick to snap, Alphonse serves as the calmer, gentler counterweight, patient almost to a fault and moved by an instinct to protect not only loved ones and friends but at times even his enemies. Losing his body at ten froze part of his growth, leaving him a streak of childlike innocence, yet in most matters he carries himself with more maturity than his older brother, and he jokes that his temper is always the slower of the two to flare. Beneath that composure runs a current of quiet pain. Trapped in metal, he wrestles with doubts about whether he is still truly human, aches for the warmth of contact he can no longer feel, and privately blames himself for the ruined transmutation that cost Edward an arm and a leg.

His caring nature makes him a natural guardian who throws his durable frame between danger and the people around him, and he loathes violence enough to insist that recovering his body means nothing if others are harmed along the way. He is self-conscious about his towering size and brightens whenever someone treats him like the boy he still feels he is. Softer joys mark him too: he collects stray kittens and smuggles them inside his armor, charms nearly every woman he meets with heartfelt words his blunt brother could never manage, and keeps a running list of the meals he plans to eat once restored, dreaming most of all of Winry's apple pie. The long, sleepless nights weigh on him, since his armored form cannot rest, and he admits that the empty hours invite dark and intrusive thoughts.

Raised under Izumi Curtis and her creed that one must discipline the body to discipline the spirit, Alphonse became a skilled bare-handed fighter, holding his own against armed foes and trained martial artists alike. Edward has admitted that his younger brother is the better combatant of the two and that he has never once won a match between them. The armor lends further advantages, since it feels no pain, stops bullets, never tires, ignores extremes of heat and cold, and frees him from any need to breathe, eat, or sleep, though he must always guard the blood seal within, for its destruction would tear his soul loose.

A first-rate mind matches his physical gifts, and his command of biology, chemistry, and alchemy nearly rivals Edward's. His alchemy itself carries a rare quirk: unlike almost anyone else, he can drive a transmutation simply by standing over an array and concentrating, without laying hands on it, a feat most alchemists cannot manage without an amplifier. After the memories of his passage through the Gate resurface, he gains the far greater ability to transmute with no circle drawn at all. Armed with a Philosopher's Stone, his creativity widens still further, conjuring flash charges, whip-like blades, and cage-like earthen traps to catch opponents off guard.