Wrath (2003 anime)

Wrath (Japanese:ラース, Rāsu) is a young Homunculus created by Izumi Curtis in an attempt to revive her son. He is a character exclusive to the first anime, not to be confused with the Wrath from the manga and Brotherhood.

Powers and Abilities
Wrath is a Homunculus, and thus has amazing powers of recuperation, strength, speed, and perpetual longevity. Furthermore, while in possession of Edward's lost limbs, Wrath displays the ability to perform Alchemy without a transmutation circle - something which is unique to both Alchemists and Homunculi. But his particular Homunculus power is the ability to merge and fuse his body with virtually any matter, both living and inanimate, organic and inorganic, and can even accelerate the speed in which he merges through the Alchemy he uses. He also has the ability to move his altered body parts like he did with Izumi's cloths to ensnare Alphonse.

Role in the Story
In the anime, Wrath is the Homunculus reincarnation of Izumi's son, who died at birth. She tried to resurrect him and failed. Wrath spent much time in the Gate, waiting and wanting to go out all while his body was slowly growing. The Gate opened while the Elric Brothers were trying to resurrect their mother. It was then when Wrath gained Edward's arm and leg.

Long after, he says, he opened the Gate himself and then lived on Yock Island; the same island where the Elric Brothers spent one month. Following a quick battle with Izumi and the Elrics, he is forgiven by the former and allowed to stay with the Curtis family. But after being captured by the military and found by Envy, who feeds him his first batch of Red Stones, Wrath joined the other Homunculi. As time went on, he began to think of Sloth as his mother.

When Sloth was being repeatedly slashed by Lust as a distraction so Ed could get his mother's body bone, Wrath appeared and took it before Ed, fusing it with himself. Then, Wrath went back inside and stopped Lust from attacking 'mommy'. Sloth tried to run away, but Ed followed her. Wrath was about to follow them, but Lust stopped him. They fought until Wrath found the locket Edward had thrown to Lust previously. As with other Homunculi, Lust was paralyzed by being in close proximity to the body parts of the person intended to be revived (in this case hair attached to the locket). With this advantage, Wrath used his borrowed limbs to perform alchemy and killed her.

After that, he went to save Sloth, and fused himself with her, so he would "never lose her". However, because he still had Trisha's (Ed's mother) bone fused with him, being so close to Sloth paralyzed her. Ed took that chance, and used alchemy to turn her liquid body into ethanol, causing Sloth to evaporate into the air.

Later, Izumi appeared and tried to convince Wrath to come with her. Wrath, insisting that Sloth was his real mother, didn't believe her and ran off. He didn't appear again until he, Dante, and Envy were inside the underground city. He ran to Dante and Envy while begging profusedly to use the Philosopher Stone to bring Sloth back to life. However, this caused Envy to kick him off repeatedly and to beat him up multiple times for his behavior. When he appear a short time later to try again, Dante opened the Gate with Rose's baby and had the black hands of the Gate Children dismember his right arm and left leg which originally were Ed's arm and leg to prevent him from using his alchemy.

Afterwards, he was left on the floor, crying and bleeding in agony, until Ed was brought back to life after being killed by Envy. Ed asked Rose to take Wrath with her above ground. In the last episode, he was seen in the Rockbell residence, with an automail arm and leg and was living with Winry and Pinako, until he decided to leave.

Conqueror of Shamballa
Later on, he appeared in Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa. There, Winry found him in the forest near Izumi's grave, disheveled and despondent over her death. Noticing his automail was in severe disrepair, she took him back to the Rockbell residence for meals and maintenance. Then, when Alphonse came back after finding out that his brother was alive on the other side of the Gate, Wrath anticipated what his intentions were. He led Alphonse to the Underground City, where they were attacked by a mutated Gluttony.

Wrath and Gluttony battled, until Wrath made it to the Transmutation Circle Al had drawn that would open the Gate, where he intentionally let himself be bitten by Gluttony. Then, he told Alphonse that he knew he was planning to sacrifice himself to bring his brother back, claiming that he never wanted to see anything like that ever again. Alphonse tried to argue, but Wrath told him that he wanted to go to his real home, where "Mommy" was. Alphonse went through with the transmutation and Wrath, in his untainted form with all limbs was seen in front of the Gate, the doors open soon after with Izumi there to greet him. He was last seen walking to his mother (his biological mother) and embracing her before the gate closed, finally reunited, the two of them disappear into the hereafter together.

He and Gluttony die at the same time and are the fifth and sixth Homunculi to die.

Trivia

 * Excluding Father, Wrath is the only Homunculus in the Fullmetal Alchemist continuity capable of using Alchemy, due to his right arm and left leg originally belonging to Edward Elric. This is actually a plot hole because people transmute through their souls, which is why Al can transmute without a body.
 * His Japanese seiyuu, Nana Mizuki, also does the voice of Lan Fan in the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime.
 * Whereas the manga storyline has Pride as a young boy and Wrath as the Führer, it is interesting to note that the 2003 anime has these roles reversed.
 * Wrath is similar to Truth in that he resided at the Gate and obtained Ed's right arm and left leg after the Elric brothers' failed human transmutation. In addition—and perhaps not coincidentally—both characters are voiced by Luci Christian in English. Also, he is likely one of the Gate Children, who were based off Truth to some degree.
 * Wrath is the only Homunculus from the 2003 anime whose appearance and role are completely original. Izumi's child was only mentioned in the manga and 2009 anime, but never seen.
 * Other than being called Wrath, his real name was never revealed, but his last name is likely Curtis.
 * In the 2003 anime, Wrath is the only antagonist that's a child.
 * In the 2003 anime, Wrath is the only Homunculus whose remains cannot be used against him (because Izumi used his remains to transmute him), but he possesses strong phobias of The Gate and freezes upon hearing a wailing baby as it remind him of how he was taken into the gate.
 * The fact that Wrath was made from his own remains may explain why he was able to age, which is apparently quite the feat among homunculi.
 * However, it should also be noted that Pride was an aging homunculus, too, even though he wasn't constructed from his own remains. It remains unclear as to how old Pride actually is, however, and if the human-based aging process is similar to Wrath's growth (it's likely that Dante's alchemy influenced how Pride aged).
 * It's also interesting to note that Wrath's body grew and matured while inside the Gate, whereas Al's body did not.
 * Wrath's right arm and left leg being torn apart by The Gate in the 2003 anime is referenced to Dante's Purgatorio, where the wrathful are dismembered alive.
 * It's unclear as to why Wrath's own Homunculus limbs did not regenerate once Ed's were removed. It is likely, however, that his physical formation within the gate itself had something to do with this anomaly.
 * Wrath was the only homunculus to go into the afterlife in Conqueror of Shamballa, (which is ironic since homunculi don't have souls.) Since he lived there most of his life and the fact he was created from his own remains, he was able to bypass that theory.