Selim Bradley

To the world he is a bright, ordinary schoolboy, and that childlike shell is exactly what he wants people to see. His genuine form, however, is a mass of living darkness studded with eyes and mouths, with the human-shaped body serving only as a vessel he moves within, much as Father once dwelt inside a flask. The container resists tremendous punishment, shrugging off assaults and even a head-on car collision, does not bleed when cut, and appears hollow but for the shadow within and his Philosopher's Stone. He can also nudge the apparent age of that body up or down by a few years to better pass as human. In the 2003 anime the arrangement is reversed, with Selim a genuine human child and Pride being the hidden truth of King Bradley.

As Selim he plays the part of an eager boy given to hero worship, gushing over the Fuhrer he calls father and reacting with delight upon meeting the Elrics. Cracks show through, as when he mockingly calls the taller Edward small. Once he sheds the disguise, his Pride persona surfaces, echoing Father's contempt for humanity while treating people as toys and slaves rather than with mere boredom. He prizes his rank as the eldest homunculus, preaches the superiority of his kind, and scolds siblings he deems unworthy, growing arrogant and cruel in battle and quick with petty taunts.

He is deeply biased and self-justifying, always inventing excuses to shield his image, and Envy, Greed, and even Wrath's tolerant relationship aside, most of his brethren find him monstrous. For all his boasting he ultimately holds no real pride in his own nature, slaying Gluttony to absorb his powers and devouring Kimblee for his knowledge, then attempting to seize Edward's body when his own began to fail. Immature despite his age and terrified of death, he nonetheless comes to cherish the false family life Mrs. Bradley gave him, and when Edward destroys his container beneath Central he panics, recalls his adoptive mother, and cries out for his mama as a helpless infant form.

Like all homunculi he possesses immortality and rapid regeneration, but his shadows make him one of the deadliest in open combat. He can shape and command them freely to slice or swallow nearly anything, and given darkness and space they grow monstrous in size and lash out at blinding speed. Even more valuable is his reach as a watchman, for he spreads his essence through the shadows to see and speak from far away, letting him alone monitor all of Central and the nationwide transmutation circle. His array of weaknesses is unusually large, however, since he cannot leave the area of that circle, cannot manifest in total darkness, and withers under intense light such as a flash grenade.

Another of his fearsome traits is assimilation, consuming a victim to take on their strengths. Devouring Kimblee grants him the use of a transmutation circle, and eating Gluttony gives him a sharpened sense of smell and shadow teeth along with a ravenous hunger. Through the blood seal binding Alphonse and their shared connection to Hohenheim, he can even puppet the armored body and speak with Alphonse's voice. Reduced at last to a defenseless fetus-like true form stripped of memory and power, he later regains the capacity to genuinely age, growing over two years into a child once more, the sole homunculus to outlive the entire series.