Winry Rockbell

Winry Rockbell (ウィンリィ・ロックベル, Uinrī Rokkuberu) is a main supporting character in the Fullmetal Alchemist series. A close childhood friend of Edward and Alphonse Elric since their young life in Resembool, she is almost like a sister to the two and essentially their only family. An amateur surgeon and mechanical repair specialist/enthusiast, Winry acts as Edward's rear line support as his personal automail engineer and mechanic, making sure his prosthetic right arm and left leg are always in good working order. Additionally, she provides a great deal of emotional support for the pair and is the love interest of Edward.

Appearance
Winry is a rather attractive young woman with a slender yet healthily curvaceous build, blue eyes and long, light blond hair. She is slightly taller than Edward for the entirety of the 2003 anime series and most of the manga and, though Edward spends much of their early life taunting her for having "no sex appeal", Winry's figure becomes progressively more womanly over the course of the story. She usually wears her hair in a long ponytail tied high in back, while leaving a loose curtain on either side of her face and her bangs falling casually from right to left across her forehead. Winry wears her ears pierced in an avant-garde style, with two identical pairs of hoop earrings on each and an additional pair of studs worn vertically on her right ear, above the others. Though multiple characters have commented on her ladylike beauty in public, Winry is an unabashed tomboy and spends much of her time dressed in her mechanic's garb, donning a beige worker's jumpsuit with the top half open and tied around her waist to reveal her usual black tube top and her bare midriff. After her move to Rush Valley, Winry swaps out her tube top for a black and white halter with a large zipper down the front, but the remainder of her work outfit remains the same. Additionally, she ties her hair back with a characteristic green bandanna, wears house slippers and protects her hands with light brown suede craftsman's gloves while working. When going out for a jaunt, however, Winry is quite partial to light-colored tank tops and short skirts and occasionally wears her hair down.

Personality
Winry is a strong-willed and emphatic person who puts all her heart and effort into the things she does. Enthusiastic about machinery, Winry is most at home near cranking gears, whirring bearings and the smell of oil and becomes absolutely giddy when given the opportunity to interact with and learn about such things, causing Edward to mock her as an "engineering otaku". She is stubborn and straightforward, often calling others out for their weaknesses and delusions. Though she shares this trait with Edward, Winry is a bit more tactful with her honesty and usually only displays this side of herself to her closest relations. Winry's stout heart allows her to make difficult and dangerous choices very easily so long as they coincide with her strong sense of duty and morality. Contributed to by both of these characteristics is her willingness to work with almost excessive devotion on the various automails whose maintenance she undertakes for the sake of the people who depend on her, going so far as to take multiple consecutive overnight workshop sessions and travel long distances without hesitation in order to ensure their prompt and proper completion.

Kindhearted and empathetic, Winry is the type of person who consistently tries her best to aid and support the people around her. She is very sensitive to the pain of others and has been known to cry frequently on behalf of people who won't cry for themselves, earning her the distinction of being a bit of a "crybaby" in Edward's eyes. As one who values family (immediate and extended) above most other things, Winry is a bit of a worrier and concerns herself with the welfare of people she cares about. It is likely this care that makes her so popular with her clients in Rush Valley, all of whom are greatly moved by the attention to personal detail that she willingly gives to each of them.

However, on the other side of her sensitive and emotional nature is a temper that easily rivals - if not overshadowing - even that of Edward Elric. When insulted, hurt or embarrassed, Winry is prone to lash out violently - though typically the victims of such tantrums are Ed and Al.

Relationships
Edward Elric - As such, however, Edward argues with Winry even more than he does with Al, their similarly stubborn personalities keeping them at odds with one another despite their powerful bond. After the terrible accident that claimed Ed's arm and leg, Winry took on the role of his personal automail mechanic, building him sophisticated new limbs at the tender age of eleven. Since then, Winry has served as Ed's constant well of support, both mechanically and emotionally, though they still find themselves arguing frequently. However, this affectionate hostility appears to be masking a deeper relationship. Though Edward has not outwardly admitted any romantic feelings toward Winry, he is rather overprotective of her and becomes unnaturally flustered at the mere suggestion of an amatory relationship between them. Winry, for her part, has admitted to herself that she had been falling for him all along.

Alphonse Elric - Born to the kind family that lived next door to the Elrics, Winry grew up alongside Ed and Al and means as much to them both as would a sister; she and Al are more than childhood friends, they are a family. However, Alphonse had displayed some sort of romantic affections for Winry in his youth, as revealed by his mention of how he and Ed had fought over her hand in marriage, but were both turned down. Nonetheless, Al expresses jealousy in one of the omake pieces over Edward's nearly seeing her naked in Chapter 84. For the most part, Al appears to have put those feelings behind him and takes pleasure in teasing Winry for her apparent feelings for his brother.

Pinako - Even since before the death of her parents during the Ishval Civil War, Winry has always had a close relationship with her grandmother, but since the tragedy that befell the Rockbell homestead, Pinako has served as Winry's sole caretaker and closest - if not only - blood relation. The two have a relatively amicable relationship, ribbing each other every so often as they go about their days jointly running their automail atelier, but the bond between them remains as that of doting grandparent and adoring grandchild. When Winry finally sets out on her own path as an automail engineer, Pinako worries silently that the greater world will be too hard on her little Winry, but is very proud when she sees and hears evidence of the young woman's progress. Conversely, Winry worries about leaving her grandmother alone and communicates with her regularly, knowing that there will always be a place for her at home in Resembool if she should so require.

Riza Hawkeye - Many parallels can be drawn between Riza and Winry, aside from being the woman closer to the main characters of the series. When Winry first met Riza, she had a heavy preconceived vision of soldiers in military in general, since she held them responsible for war and, consequentially, the death of her parents. Upon talking to her, Riza reveals another side to the military work, about her idealistic view of duty and dedicating her life to the service of the country and her objectives. Since then, although they don't share a close relationship, Winry seems to regard Riza as a role model in selflessness and dedication to her believes and Riza seems to cherish the innocence and purity of Winry (maybe as a reflect to her own innocence lost in the military service). This can be seen very clearly during the gaiden called Simple People, where Riza confess to have her hair grown because she saw Winry's and liked they way they looked; and Winry confess to have her ears pierced because she saw Hawkeye wear earrings and thought they looked nice.

Abilities
Winry is an exceptionally gifted and passionate mechanic, excelling in the repair of machines of widely varying complexity. Of course, her truest passion and most extensive expertise is in the crafting and overhauling of automail prostheses. Brought up under the tutelage of her grandmother, master automail engineer Pinako Rockbell, Winry has been working with automail for most of her youth and can be considered somewhat of a machinist prodigy, having built Edward a complex pair of limbs at the tender age of eleven. Since that time, her skills have improved to the point that she has surpassed even her grandmother (once hailed far and wide as the "Pantheress of Resembool") and gained a fair bit of notoriety in her position at Atelier Garfiel in Rush Valley.

In addition, Winry appears to have a remarkable wealth of surgical knowledge for her age (despite a lack of formal training), gleaned from having grown up in a family of surgeons. Edward remarks that Winry's early comprehension of advanced medical literature is on par with the familiarity with alchemical texts shared by the young Elric brothers themselves. She has also displayed a significantly strong throwing arm, able to pitch heavy wrenches long distance with deadly accuracy.

History
Born to surgeons Sara and Urey Rockbell of Resembool in the year 1899, young Winry's formative years were simple and happy, for the most part. Doted on by her paternal grandmother Pinako and growing up next door to the Elric family, whose two boys Edward and Alphonse were close enough to her age to become her dearest friends, the young girl was never lacking in the abundance of love and other small-town pleasures. However, her comfortable extended family unit took a blow when both her parents left to serve as emergency doctors on the front lines of the Ishval Civil War. Young Winry was disheartened by her parents' absence, but carried on bravely until 1909, when news came home to Resembool that they had both been killed in action. From then on, Winry remained in the solitary care of her grandmother and worked as her assistant as the old woman performed surgeries and crafted automail for the people of the town. Already acquainted with medicine - having perused her parents' medical books throughout her childhood - Winry became infatuated with automail and general machinery to the point that she was able to craft her own automail pieces despite being barely a decade old. This would prove crucially useful in 1910 when, after a half a year of alchemical training under Izumi Curtis, her friends Ed and Al attempted to transmute their late mother back to life and failed, triggering a rebound which lost Al his entire physical body and Edward his right arm and left leg. When Alphonse, with his disembodied soul bound to an empty suit of armor, appeared at the Rockbells' door clutching a maimed and bleeding Edward in his arms, Winry and Pinako quickly administered an emergency surgery to save the boy's life.

Some time later, Lt. Colonel Roy Mustang and his assistant 2nd Lt. Riza Hawkeye arrived in Resembool with the intention of recruiting Edward for the State Alchemist program. Though Winry expressed her dislike of soldiers and fear that Ed and Al would be taken from her by the military as her parents had, 2nd Lt. Hawkeye reassured the young girl that no one would be taking her friends by force and that even soldiers fight for good reasons, helping Winry to understand her ability to support her friends when her assistance is necessary. Swayed by Mustang's words, Edward agrees to join the military and asks Pinako and Winry to craft him an automail arm and leg to replace the ones he had lost. Using her expertise, Winry creates Edward's new arm from scratch, putting all her efforts into making it as perfect as possible and, after a year of recuperation, Edward left for his certification exam in Central City in late September of 1911. When he returned on October 3rd, the Elric brothers packed up their belongings and burned down their house as they left town in search of a way to restore their bodies to normal. Of course, though the burning of the Elric home was supposedly a sign of abandoning their point of return, they would come home to Resembool several times over the next three years in order to touch base with their only family they had left and to have Winry service Ed's limbs.

Rear-Line Support
Winry makes her first appearance in the series in Chapter 9 when the Elrics, accompanied by Major Alex Louis Armstrong arrive suddenly in Resembool to have Edward's arm fixed, looking very much the worse for wear. Winry is at first overjoyed to see her friends again after their latest absence, but her elation quickly turns to despair and fury when she discovers that the masterpiece automail she had built Edward as a child is not only damaged, but completely obliterated beyond the scope of repair. Wishing to help as much as possible, she exuberantly takes on the task of machining a new automail arm for him from scratch, taking a record three days and two full nights of work to do so. After seeing the Elrics off when they leave for Central City at dawn the next morning, Winry spends the remainder of the day catching up on her lost sleep, not waking until the evening. However, upon waking, she discovers that her lack of sleep may have affected her work, as a bolt she had prepared for Ed's arm lies on her workstation, untouched.

She next appears in Chapter 13 when, Edward - having lost the use of his automail in a fight - calls her up to ask her to make repairs in Central City. Wracked with guilt over the missing bolt that caused the malfunction, Winry readily complies and makes arrangements to travel to the capital. She arrives in Central and is escorted by Major Armstrong to the small hospital where Ed is recovering from serious injuries. At first, Winry's guilt gets the better of her and she apologizes profusely for not doing a perfect job in building it, but when it becomes apparent that Edward knows nothing of the missing piece and has assumed that his own recklessness was the cause of the malfunction, she coolly allows the matter to be swept under the rug.

After administering the necessary repairs and hearing from Ed about Alphonse's recent and strange aloofness, Winry states that she needs to find lodgings for the night and is virtually accosted by Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes, who has come to visit Ed in the hospital. Pushing his over-exuberant hospitality on her, Hughes insists that she spend her time in Central City with Maes and his family. Practically dragging her along, Hughes goes shopping for his daughter Elicia's third birthday and brings young Winry along to the celebration.

Rush Valley
In the manga Winry becomes an apprentice to Garfiel, an automail engineer in Rush Valley. Her parents, both doctors, were killed by Scar during the Ishval Civil War when she was very young (after the Elric brothers' father left, but before their mother died). Winry plays a much larger role in the manga than in the the anime where she is a supporting character. She frequently travels with the Elrics (mainly because Ed keeps breaking his arm; he refers to her as "his personal mechanic") and later realizes that she has been in love with Ed for a long time.

Hostage in the North
Due to her importance in the lives of the Elric brothers, Winry is used as a hostage by the military to gain Edward's obedience. In order to escape from the military's possession, she decided to travel with Scar and the others. It was revealed in chapter 72 that it was her plan for Scar to use her as a hostage in order to escape although she has not forgiven him for killing her parents. In chapters 80 and 81, she is seen worrying over Ed. In chapter 84 Winry is taken on a military train back to Resembool in a water tank. When she comes into her house she is shocked to find Ed in her room while she is undressing. The two scream (obviously shocked by one another), which causes everyone to believe Ed and Winry are in danger and she soon kicks (literally) everyone out of her room. Shortly after she fills Ed in on where Al is and what's been happening in Lior, she finds out Ling has become Greed and why they were hiding out in her house. Ed tells her to leave the country, but she refuses, wanting to help Ed in anyway she can. Ed soon departs and Winry stays in Resembool for the time being.

Final Arc
In Chapter 104, Winry is seen in Resembool as the effects of the Nationwide Transmutation Circle are felt everywhere. Pinako and she collapse in their house as she utters her last word: "Ed." In the next chapter, however, it is revealed that Hohenheim has been planning for Father's nationwide transmutation circle. He has hid parts of his Philosopher's Stone in the soil, and using the Umbra, the moon's shadow, the souls of his Philosopher's Stone are able to rip the people of Amestris' souls out of Father and back into their bodies. Winry is next seen coughing and says that she felt like she was drowning in a whirlpool of pain and suffering.

2003 Anime
Winry pays a lot of attention to Ed's automail because of her deep feelings for him[5], and feels accomplished when she thinks that Ed wins in an automail arm wrestling contest. Winry accepts the Elric brothers as a part of her family and tries to play the role as their sister, though she may not truly see herself as one. Throughout the series, she tends to most express her feelings during moments of weakness, showing genuine concern and romantic interest towards Edward.

When they were younger, Ed and Al would argue over who would be the one to marry Winry when they grew up.

After Ed disappears at the end of the anime, Winry takes care of Al while waiting for Edward to return. When he finally does in Conqueror of Shamballa, she embraces Ed in tears of joy, making him blush. Winry reveals that she has prepared new automail for Edward, and upon his return, attaches them to him. After Edward's departure, Winry continues working on automail with her grandmother.

In 2007, three OVA's were created. In one of them, Winry's affections to Edward are made apparent. In the OVA, the "cast" of the movie attended an after-party. During which, a drunken Winry confronts Edward about pictures of him and Noah that appeared in a magazine featuring shots and tidbits of the movie. During Ed's explanations, Winry becomes infuriated with jealousy and beats him with wrenches and screwdrivers.

Another shows three children in a modern city who bear a striking resemblance to Ed, Al, and Winry who go visit an elderly Edward who is their great-grandfather. It is unknown who Ed married, our world's Winry or his world's Winry who might have found a way across.

According to the booklet in Special Edition of the movie, it is stated that she has become an authority on Automail during the two years.

Trivia

 * In the OVA "Kids," one of the children looks almost identical to Winry and is Edward's great granddaughter. No one knows if Winry somehow got to our world and had children with Edward or Ed simply found our universe's version of Winry, whether either of them are relevent is never explained.
 * It has been posited that Winry's given name began as a mistransliteration on the part of the author, who intended to name her "Wendy".
 * Winry is a very loved character. For example Mania Entertainment's Jarred Pine liked how Winry's character is further developed in the manga than in the first anime, remarking her first meeting with Riza Hawkeye which he claims "It is such a simple scene, but it really speaks volumes about the characters."
 * Winry got ranked to the 5th most popular character in the recent fan poll, which makes her the second popular female in the series with Riza being the first, coming in 3rd place.
 * Ed and Winry's romantic relationship is heavily implied in the FMA series. By now, it is obvious to fans that they probably will end up together. This is one of the most popular FMA pairings. It's also known as "Edwin".
 * Winry has been seen sleeping with a wrench.