Hiromu Arakawa’s manga series Fullmetal Alchemist has been adapted into an anime twice, first in 2003 and later in 2009 as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It also earned a live-action film adaptation in 2017. Though the film didn’t prove to be a fan-favorite, a sequel called The Avenger Scar is premiering in Japan on May 20. (Trilogy capper Final Chapter - The Last Transmutation is set to arrive in June; international releases will presumably follow.)
FMA is the tale of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric. An attempt to revive their late mother ended with Ed down an arm and leg and Al’s soul trapped in a suit of armor. To restore their bodies, they search for the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. On the journey, they make many friends and foes; chief among the latter are a cabal of seven homunculi, humans created by alchemy, each one embodying one of mankind’s deadliest sins.
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Avenger Scar introduces the titular villain turned anti-hero to the live-action world. Left out of the first movie due to time constraints, Scar is one of FMA’s most complex characters and has a rich backstory. Let’s delve into his history and connection to the Ishvalan Civil War.
Fullmetal Alchemist’s setting is inspired by 1910s Europe, with the additions of alchemy and steampunk tech. The story mostly takes place in the country of Amestris, a military dictatorship prone to border skirmishes. One of the nation’s annexations was Ishval, a desert country whose brown-skinned, red-eyed inhabitants refused to practice alchemy, viewing the science of creation as an affront to their god, Ishvala. These cultural differences led to tension, which boiled over about 10 years before the story’s beginning: An Amestrian soldier shot an Ishvalan child, leading to riots and then civil war.
The Amestrian government recruits alchemists into their military, giving them special funds, privileges, and titles in exchange for service. In Ishval, the State Alchemists were deployed as human WMDs. Worse, Amestrian Fuhrer King Bradley signed Order #3066, ordering the extermination of the Ishvalans and refusing their surrender. This turned conflict into genocide.
Take your pick of which real-life conflict best parallels the Ishvalan extermination.
Take your pick of which real-life conflict best parallels the Ishvalan extermination. There’s the Herero Wars of 1904-1908 when the Herero and Nama people rose up against their German occupiers. Like the Amestrians, the Germans responded with ethnic cleansing. The animated film Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa likewise draws parallels between the Ishvalans and the plight that groups like the Romani and Jews faced in 1920s Germany.
Arakawa was also reportedly inspired by the Ainu, inhabitants of islands in the Sea of Okhotsk who have been marginalized throughout Japanese history. It’s easy to imagine Arakawa being influenced by the 2003 invasion of Iraq as well. Fullmetal Alchemist manga chapters 58-61 depict flashbacks to the Ishvalan war and were published in 2006 when Iraq was still hot on the global community’s mind.
Like with many real-life atrocities, the perpetrators aren’t eager to acknowledge their crimes - with one exception. Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, is wracked with guilt for his actions in Ishval. He seeks to become Fuhrer to prevent anything like the genocide from happening again and see those who perpetrated it, himself included, brought to justice.
But there’s someone else who seeks restitution through more violent ends: the Ishvalan with no name, Scar.
The man who became Scar was one of the many victims of Solf Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist. His family were killed in an explosion created by Kimblee, while Scar himself lost his right arm and was left with an x-shaped scar across his forehead. Luckily, his older brother was a student of alchemy - a heretic by Ishvalan standards. To save Scar’s life, his brother transmuted his own right arm, tattooed with alchemic symbols, onto Scar. Scar’s backstory has clear parallels to Ed and Al.
Like Ed, Scar’s brother sacrificed his right arm to save his younger sibling. Scar himself, just like Ed, now has a right arm that is not his own.
Even with his life saved, Scar was understandably bitter towards Amestris. Once he learned to control the power drawn across his new limb, he set about systematically murdering State Alchemists. Alchemy follows three steps. One, analyze a material’s composition. Two, break it down. Three, reform it. The recreation part is what Ishvalans are against, feeling that reshaping the world perverts God's will. To kill, Scar stops at the second step, destruction. His preferred method is to grab his victim’s head and then implode their brain. Despite this technicality preventing true alchemy, Scar still sees himself as heretical and hence abandoned his God-given name.
Ed became a state alchemist, code-named Fullmetal, for the resources the position bestowed. Even though he was but a child when the Ishval war raged, his association still put him in Scar’s crosshairs. Scar destroyed Ed’s mechanical arm in their first fight and would’ve killed the young alchemist if back-up hadn’t arrived. His conflict with the brothers grew more personal when it turned out Scar murdered Yuriy and Sarah Rockbell, the parents of the Elrics’ childhood friend Winry. The Rockbells had been doctors working in Ishval, saving lives on both sides. When Scar awoke in their care, he was still in shock from his brother’s sacrifice and inflamed by the sight of Amestrians. Thus, he murdered the Rockbells in a blind rage; the pair are the only victims he regrets.
At a camp of Ishvalan refugees, Scar met an old teacher of his, who said he must break the cycle of vengeance. Scar’s arc is about him learning to heed this wisdom. He also gradually gains a band of followers: Yoki, a hapless military administrator turned fugitive; May Chang, a wandering princess from the nation Xing; and Dr. Tim Marcoh, a former State Alchemist repentant over Ishval. These relationships, especially with May, reawaken his humanity.
It turns out there was more to the Ishvalan war than meets the eye. The Amestrian soldier who kickstarted the war with a single bullet wasn’t a soldier at all. No, it was Envy the Jealous, a shapeshifting homunculus. The homunculi's involvement doesn’t end there: Fuhrer Bradley is really Wrath the Furious.
Why did the homunculi cause the war? For one, captured Ishvalans were used as ingredients in the creation of Philosopher’s Stones. To create using alchemy, you must exchange something of equivalent value; the only thing valuable enough to create a Philosopher’s Stone are human souls. Father, the first homunculus and the creator of the others, intends to transmute Amestris’ whole population into a Philosopher’s Stone and attain godhood. To do so, “crests of blood” must be carved at specific points within the nation’s borders (in truth, a giant transmutation circle). Ishval had the misfortune of being located at one of those points.
When Scar learns about the truth of his people’s pain and the homunculi’s plan, he allies with the heroes to stop it. His growth doesn’t end there. May teaches him alkahestry, Xing’s strain of alchemy. He also meets Miles, an officer with one-quarter Ishvalan ancestry who hopes to change Amestris’ military from the inside. Scar is inspired by Miles’ nonviolent method of change, and in the manga’s epilogue, at the story’s end, the two rebuild Ishval together. The ultimate symbol of Scar letting go of his anger? He’s the one who defeats Wrath.
The 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime was produced long before the manga completed its run in 2010. Thus, the writing team used the source material as a springboard instead of gospel. They rearranged chronology, devised their own explanations for then-unresolved mysteries, and created original characters. The last leg of the series, Episodes 35-51, is almost entirely original.
2003 Scar’s story starts the same, but progresses and ends differently. Halfway through the series, he makes peace with the Elrics and begins leading a band of Ishvalan refugees. Looking for a means to protect his people, Scar sets out to create his own Philosopher’s Stone. He travels to the city of Lior and inscribes an enormous transmutation circle across its streets. Knowing Amestrian soldiers will come for him, Scar plans to evacuate the city and then use the invaders to create the Stone.
2003 Scar’s story starts the same, but progresses and ends differently.
Scar’s scheme works; he even avenges his family by slaying Kimblee, but not before the Crimson Alchemist transmutes Al’s armored body into a bomb. To save the younger Elric, Scar makes him the receptacle for the Philosopher’s Stone. Mortally wounded, Scar activates the transmutation circle, using himself and 7000 soldiers as the kindling. Despite the violence of his final acts, Scar finds peace in death, “A man who inflicts suffering can not rest,” he says. “His guilty mind won't allow it. But today I can finally close my eyes to the living nightmare and lay down knowing that I won't wake again.”
Scar’s character arc is more tragic in this version, but reflects the 2003 anime’s deeper political consciousness compared to the manga and Brotherhood. “Breaking the cycle of violence” is a flawed message when applied to a genocide victim retaliating against war criminals. This is further cemented by another wrinkle to 2003 Scar’s backstory: he didn’t murder the Rockbells. Roy Mustang did, on the orders of his superiors who were angered by the doctors treating Ishvalans. Mustang’s guilt over Ishval is all the more palpable because of this. FMA 2003 never equivocates, laying the blame for the violence solely at Amestris’ feet. Scar outsmarting the military and saving Lior’s people from the fate that befell his own is a fitting conclusion for these themes and his arc.
However, The Avenger Scar and The Last Transmutation will be following Arawkawa’s source material. After all, the first movie, compressed as it was, broadly followed the manga. The trailer even includes a glimpse of the scene where Winry discovers that Scar murdered her parents. This seems a shame, since FMA 2003 proved that sometimes changes in adaptation are for the better.
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FMA is the tale of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric. An attempt to revive their late mother ended with Ed down an arm and leg and Al’s soul trapped in a suit of armor. To restore their bodies, they search for the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. On the journey, they make many friends and foes; chief among the latter are a cabal of seven homunculi, humans created by alchemy, each one embodying one of mankind’s deadliest sins.
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Avenger Scar introduces the titular villain turned anti-hero to the live-action world. Left out of the first movie due to time constraints, Scar is one of FMA’s most complex characters and has a rich backstory. Let’s delve into his history and connection to the Ishvalan Civil War.
The Ishvalan Genocide
Fullmetal Alchemist’s setting is inspired by 1910s Europe, with the additions of alchemy and steampunk tech. The story mostly takes place in the country of Amestris, a military dictatorship prone to border skirmishes. One of the nation’s annexations was Ishval, a desert country whose brown-skinned, red-eyed inhabitants refused to practice alchemy, viewing the science of creation as an affront to their god, Ishvala. These cultural differences led to tension, which boiled over about 10 years before the story’s beginning: An Amestrian soldier shot an Ishvalan child, leading to riots and then civil war.
The Amestrian government recruits alchemists into their military, giving them special funds, privileges, and titles in exchange for service. In Ishval, the State Alchemists were deployed as human WMDs. Worse, Amestrian Fuhrer King Bradley signed Order #3066, ordering the extermination of the Ishvalans and refusing their surrender. This turned conflict into genocide.
Take your pick of which real-life conflict best parallels the Ishvalan extermination.
Take your pick of which real-life conflict best parallels the Ishvalan extermination. There’s the Herero Wars of 1904-1908 when the Herero and Nama people rose up against their German occupiers. Like the Amestrians, the Germans responded with ethnic cleansing. The animated film Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa likewise draws parallels between the Ishvalans and the plight that groups like the Romani and Jews faced in 1920s Germany.
Arakawa was also reportedly inspired by the Ainu, inhabitants of islands in the Sea of Okhotsk who have been marginalized throughout Japanese history. It’s easy to imagine Arakawa being influenced by the 2003 invasion of Iraq as well. Fullmetal Alchemist manga chapters 58-61 depict flashbacks to the Ishvalan war and were published in 2006 when Iraq was still hot on the global community’s mind.
Like with many real-life atrocities, the perpetrators aren’t eager to acknowledge their crimes - with one exception. Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, is wracked with guilt for his actions in Ishval. He seeks to become Fuhrer to prevent anything like the genocide from happening again and see those who perpetrated it, himself included, brought to justice.
But there’s someone else who seeks restitution through more violent ends: the Ishvalan with no name, Scar.
Scar’s Path of Vengeance: A Tattoo But No Name
The man who became Scar was one of the many victims of Solf Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist. His family were killed in an explosion created by Kimblee, while Scar himself lost his right arm and was left with an x-shaped scar across his forehead. Luckily, his older brother was a student of alchemy - a heretic by Ishvalan standards. To save Scar’s life, his brother transmuted his own right arm, tattooed with alchemic symbols, onto Scar. Scar’s backstory has clear parallels to Ed and Al.
Like Ed, Scar’s brother sacrificed his right arm to save his younger sibling. Scar himself, just like Ed, now has a right arm that is not his own.
Even with his life saved, Scar was understandably bitter towards Amestris. Once he learned to control the power drawn across his new limb, he set about systematically murdering State Alchemists. Alchemy follows three steps. One, analyze a material’s composition. Two, break it down. Three, reform it. The recreation part is what Ishvalans are against, feeling that reshaping the world perverts God's will. To kill, Scar stops at the second step, destruction. His preferred method is to grab his victim’s head and then implode their brain. Despite this technicality preventing true alchemy, Scar still sees himself as heretical and hence abandoned his God-given name.
Ed became a state alchemist, code-named Fullmetal, for the resources the position bestowed. Even though he was but a child when the Ishval war raged, his association still put him in Scar’s crosshairs. Scar destroyed Ed’s mechanical arm in their first fight and would’ve killed the young alchemist if back-up hadn’t arrived. His conflict with the brothers grew more personal when it turned out Scar murdered Yuriy and Sarah Rockbell, the parents of the Elrics’ childhood friend Winry. The Rockbells had been doctors working in Ishval, saving lives on both sides. When Scar awoke in their care, he was still in shock from his brother’s sacrifice and inflamed by the sight of Amestrians. Thus, he murdered the Rockbells in a blind rage; the pair are the only victims he regrets.
At a camp of Ishvalan refugees, Scar met an old teacher of his, who said he must break the cycle of vengeance. Scar’s arc is about him learning to heed this wisdom. He also gradually gains a band of followers: Yoki, a hapless military administrator turned fugitive; May Chang, a wandering princess from the nation Xing; and Dr. Tim Marcoh, a former State Alchemist repentant over Ishval. These relationships, especially with May, reawaken his humanity.
The Truth of Ishval
It turns out there was more to the Ishvalan war than meets the eye. The Amestrian soldier who kickstarted the war with a single bullet wasn’t a soldier at all. No, it was Envy the Jealous, a shapeshifting homunculus. The homunculi's involvement doesn’t end there: Fuhrer Bradley is really Wrath the Furious.
Why did the homunculi cause the war? For one, captured Ishvalans were used as ingredients in the creation of Philosopher’s Stones. To create using alchemy, you must exchange something of equivalent value; the only thing valuable enough to create a Philosopher’s Stone are human souls. Father, the first homunculus and the creator of the others, intends to transmute Amestris’ whole population into a Philosopher’s Stone and attain godhood. To do so, “crests of blood” must be carved at specific points within the nation’s borders (in truth, a giant transmutation circle). Ishval had the misfortune of being located at one of those points.
When Scar learns about the truth of his people’s pain and the homunculi’s plan, he allies with the heroes to stop it. His growth doesn’t end there. May teaches him alkahestry, Xing’s strain of alchemy. He also meets Miles, an officer with one-quarter Ishvalan ancestry who hopes to change Amestris’ military from the inside. Scar is inspired by Miles’ nonviolent method of change, and in the manga’s epilogue, at the story’s end, the two rebuild Ishval together. The ultimate symbol of Scar letting go of his anger? He’s the one who defeats Wrath.
Other Versions of Scar
The 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime was produced long before the manga completed its run in 2010. Thus, the writing team used the source material as a springboard instead of gospel. They rearranged chronology, devised their own explanations for then-unresolved mysteries, and created original characters. The last leg of the series, Episodes 35-51, is almost entirely original.
2003 Scar’s story starts the same, but progresses and ends differently. Halfway through the series, he makes peace with the Elrics and begins leading a band of Ishvalan refugees. Looking for a means to protect his people, Scar sets out to create his own Philosopher’s Stone. He travels to the city of Lior and inscribes an enormous transmutation circle across its streets. Knowing Amestrian soldiers will come for him, Scar plans to evacuate the city and then use the invaders to create the Stone.
2003 Scar’s story starts the same, but progresses and ends differently.
Scar’s scheme works; he even avenges his family by slaying Kimblee, but not before the Crimson Alchemist transmutes Al’s armored body into a bomb. To save the younger Elric, Scar makes him the receptacle for the Philosopher’s Stone. Mortally wounded, Scar activates the transmutation circle, using himself and 7000 soldiers as the kindling. Despite the violence of his final acts, Scar finds peace in death, “A man who inflicts suffering can not rest,” he says. “His guilty mind won't allow it. But today I can finally close my eyes to the living nightmare and lay down knowing that I won't wake again.”
Scar’s character arc is more tragic in this version, but reflects the 2003 anime’s deeper political consciousness compared to the manga and Brotherhood. “Breaking the cycle of violence” is a flawed message when applied to a genocide victim retaliating against war criminals. This is further cemented by another wrinkle to 2003 Scar’s backstory: he didn’t murder the Rockbells. Roy Mustang did, on the orders of his superiors who were angered by the doctors treating Ishvalans. Mustang’s guilt over Ishval is all the more palpable because of this. FMA 2003 never equivocates, laying the blame for the violence solely at Amestris’ feet. Scar outsmarting the military and saving Lior’s people from the fate that befell his own is a fitting conclusion for these themes and his arc.
However, The Avenger Scar and The Last Transmutation will be following Arawkawa’s source material. After all, the first movie, compressed as it was, broadly followed the manga. The trailer even includes a glimpse of the scene where Winry discovers that Scar murdered her parents. This seems a shame, since FMA 2003 proved that sometimes changes in adaptation are for the better.
Continue reading...