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Father
Full Metal Alchemist character
Father by Hiromu Arakawa as depicted in the second anime series
First appearance	Full Metal Alchemist manga chapter 31 Fullmetal Alchemist 2nd anime episode 1
Voiced by	Iemasa Kayumi
Profile
Age	Undisclosed

Father (お父様, Otō-sama^?) is the main antagonist of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and second anime series. Father is the creator and leader of all the homunculi as depicted in the manga, and mastermind of the many atrocities that result from the countless wars and border disputes within the story. Father does not appear in the first anime series, effectively replaced by Dante who, likewise, does not appear in the manga.

[edit] Creation and conception

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Character Outline

In the series, Father is depicted as a calculating and remorseless figure whose preference is to exploit "useful" people to further his own goals, while disregarding those who serve absolutely no purpose. When Edward and Alphonse Elric first meet Father, he was shown to have treated their wounds and even engage them in conversation. However, Father was quick to dismiss and order the death of Lin before he reconsidered the use of this "valuable human resource".^[1][2] Father is shown to be rather protective of the Homunculi; made of his own flesh, Father regards these creations as his own children. In fact, Father went so far as to reabsorb Gluttony and recreate him with all his original memories intact, after Gluttony's Stone was nearly depleted.^[3] This is believed by Hohenheim to be his attempt at creating a family. Not much is known about Father other than he manipulates the governing body of the fictional Amestris. In fact, Fullmetal Alchemist protagonist, Edward Elric postulates that Father masterminded the creation of the State for the express purpose of bringing his plans to fruition.

In appearance, Father greatly resembles Hohenheim, Edward and Alphonse Elric's father. It is revealed in a series of flashbacks that Father used to be a mere black spec with one eye and a set of teeth confined within a scientific flask, created four centuries before the start of the main plotline. Hohenheim's blood (then slave 23) was used in the experiment that initially created Father (then simply Homunculus), thus Father holds Hohenheim in high regard as his "blood kin" for having genetically fathered him. During the transmutation that destroyed Xerxes, Father fashioned his body using Hohenheim's blood as data once more, thus resulting in their near-exact likeness. In his original form as Homunculus, he was able to deftly manipulate the King of Xerxes into crafting the massive transmutation array under the promise of immortality, and had no sympathy for the thousands of lives that were sacrificed during the alchemical reaction. In this respect, very little has changed between the tiny Homunculus of 400 years before and Father as he is depicted in the present time; Father is planning a very similar transmutation with the whole of Amestris as an array, and just as before, cares not for the countless innocent people that had to and would soon die in order for his goals to be reached.

[edit] Plot Overview

The character Father was originally a sentient shadowy substance called "Homunculus" (who at times could form eyes and a wide grin)^[4], which was created in a flask during the time of the ancient civilization of Xerxes. To leave the flask would mean death for it. The purpose of its creation has never been explicitly revealed, although the king consulting Homunculus for the secrets to immortality suggests that it was created to acquire knowledge.

Homunculus formed an attachment to a young slave boy, whose blood had been used in his creation and gave him a name in place of his identification number. Homunculus also taught him alchemy, the knowledge of which was viewed by the boy as freedom. The boy was Van Hohenheim, the father of the Elric Brothers. With Homunculus' teachings, Hohenheim rose from slave to associate alchemist. Hohenheim and Homunculus had a friendly relationship and were together for awhile; Homunculus identified Hohenheim as being 'like his father,' since it was from Hohenheim's blood that he took life.^[4]

Homunculus, in order to obtain his freedom, told the King of Xerxes the secret to immortality, but deliberately omitted that everyone within the empire-encircling transmutation circle would be killed by its activation save for the person at the center. After the alchemical process occurred, it was revealed that Homunculus had deceived the king. The true center was not where the king stood but several feet away, where the now fully-grown Hohenheim stood holding Homunculus. All of the souls in Xerxes were ripped from their bodies, and Van Hohenheim's body was sacrificed to open the Gate of Truth. Using the energy from the souls, Homunculus created new bodies for himself and Van Hohenheim, effectively becoming Philosopher's Stones. Half of the souls he kept for himself, while the other half were given to Van Hohenheim. Using Hohenheim's blood, Homunculus created his body in the image of the now-immortal alchemist.

Father created the country of Amestris and its style of alchemy in for the sake of his master plan, engineering every war in the country's history, to bring it into the form of a perfect circle with sites of bloody carnage at all the cardinal points—the necessary configuration for the transmutation of another Philosopher's Stone.

[edit] Plot Summary

In chapter 73, it's revealed that Father needs five human sacrifices to 'open the gate,' all of whom have 'opened' it before. He is shown placing four pieces, representing Edward and Alphonse Elric, Van Hohenheim, and Izumi Curtis (all people who have seen the Doors) at four corners of a transmutation circle. He chooses Roy Mustang as the fifth. He tries to have him resurrect Maes Hughes at first, but after this doesn't work, one of his suboordinates--a scientist who helped oversee the creation of Wrath-- has Riza Hawkeye mortally wounded. Roy, however, receives an eye signal from her telling him not to perform human transmutation on her. This leads Wrath to pin him down while Pride consumes the scientist, gains his knowledge, and forces Roy to open the gate.

Father's "goal" appears to be to create the perfect Philosopher's Stone and to 'open the gate' (i.e. to an uberdimension that is the seat of all true knowledge), by using all of the citizens of Amestris. This plan entails the use of 'human sacrifices' to open the gate, alchemists of notable skill, with those who have 'opened the gate' before (Elric Brothers, Van Hohenheim, Izumi Curtis, and Roy Mustang) as 'confirmed sacrifices.^{[citation needed]}' Because 'opening the gate' requires a sacrifice or 'transferal fee,' it is implied that Father intends to sacrifice the physical bodies of those who have 'opened the gate' as the transferal fee, possibly to acquire all knowledge from it as the more that is sacrificed the more knowledge is received. The plan must be executed on the day of a solar eclipse- based on remarks of Hohenheim's, a day of astrological significance, this is pointed out at the end of chapter 100.^{[citation needed]}

Father's plans are very near to fruition, because in chapter 78 Sloth eventually finishes building the tunnel underneath Amestris. Hohenheim declared war on him by way of Pride in the caves beneath Lior, and since Hohenheim is one of his intended pawns for the opening of the Gate, Father does not seem too concerned to hear that "slave number twenty-three is coming to see him" with intent to stop him. By chapter ninety-six, Hohenheim and Father began their final battle with each side making use of their considerable powers. In the end, Father impales Hohenheim in order to absorb his Philosopher's Stone. However, Hohenheim survives and Father seems shocked; Hohenheim responds that Father's rejection of humanity would be his downfall. In chapter one hundred, Father appears as a dark humanoid figure covered in eyes that resemble his original form when he was confined to a flask and appears to have absorbed Hohenheim.

[edit] Powers

Father has the power to nullify all alchemic processes within a large radius of himself, rendering any alchemic reaction to be impossible. However, this ability does not affect Xingese alchemy. The reason for this is that the two types of alchemy use different power sources. Xingese alchemy uses the power "that flows from mountains into underground, nourishing land as it passes by", whereas Amestrian alchemy apparently relies on tectonic energy from the Earth's crust (only Xingese alchemist Mei was skeptical of this description by Dr. Marcoh, describing the country as if there were people dying).

He can perform alchemy purely through thought, with no movement whatsoever, and he can transmute with any part of his body, not merely his hands as with most other alchemists. A third eye can appear in his forehead, which secreted the Philosopher's Stone that was the Homunculus Greed's nucleus (this suggests that Wrath, who like the second Greed is a human-based Homunculus, was produced in a similar way - in the manga, Wrath was shown to have been one of many young men trained since childhood to take the role of Führer, and the only one to accept a Philosopher's Stone into his body and survive). Because he is essentially a Philosopher's Stone, Father is capable of 'violating' the law of Equivalent Exchange, as demonstrated when he replaces Al's missing hand without having to rely on the material already present.^[1]

[edit] References