Talk:Edward Elric

=2008=

Mixed
The part of the manga and anime are a little mixed up take a look-- 20:12, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
 * There was some bias against the relationship between Ed and Winry. In the manga in chapter 48 she states she is in love with him so the part in the article that said no romantic feelings are shared and they are considered brother and sister is not only wrong but biased. --Sakura22222 19:53, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

=2009=

Edward
I want to say that Ed rocks!--FunFun In The SunSun 01:24, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Trivia
I think Edward loses his leg while attempting to bring his mother back to life unlike what it says in the Trivia. Waterdrop95 17:38, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * you got it right when he tried to bring back trish the gate took his leg when al lost his body he used his leg to save his soul. --Ryan Pierce 16:56, September 9, 2009 (UTC)bioshock54

Trivia
I think Edward loses his leg while attempting to bring his mother back to life unlike what it says in the Trivia. Waterdrop95 17:40, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Birthdate
The anime gave Edward a date of birth, but Arakawa specified that she avoids giving birthdates to her characters because it limits what she can do with the story. She mentioned that she thought of Edward being born in the winter, but that her perception of winter was skewed because, in her birthplace, wintry weather would sometimes last nearly six months. additionally, edward's birthday of february third in the anime was to coincide with the birth of Elicia Hughes, when, in the manga, they don't necessarily have the same birthday.
 * I added your bit about the non-specific birthday. good day. 75.159.234.160 00:06, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Before I get to the birth date, let me first cover Ed's age. In the beginning of the first episode, he is 11 years old. Then, later in the episode, we skip forward to when he is 15 years old. In episode 6, he has a birthday and turns from 11 year old Ed into 12 year old Ed. Then in episode 24, he has another birthday, turning from 15 year old Ed into 16 year old Ed.

Now, several sites (notashrimp.com and DRIFTER, for example) say that Ed's birth date is October 11, 1899 (and I'm also told this is from some book biography), and another (Official FMA Fan Site) states that his birthday is February 3, 1899. What we know for sure is that his birth date is sometime between October and February, because from February 1910 to October 3, 1910 he was still 11 years old. So we've narrowed it down to Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, or Feb.

In the episode "The Alchemy Exam", Edward, Alphonse, and Nina are seen playing outside in the snow (and is thus sometime during winter) when Maes Hughes then comes up wishing Edward a happy birthday (this was the same day Hughes's daughter, Elicia, was born, and occurred just before Ed went to take the exam, thus making him 12 at that time). So it seems like his birthday would be in a winter month... of course, this is an alternate diminsion, so who is to say which months are winter!

Thankfully, we get an even stronger clue in Episode 5, when Riza yells at Hughes that babies are not born after only 5 months (because Hughes is rambling on about the baby and preparing for its birth). This episode takes place on October 6th, and Riza's comment implies that the Elicia is expected in about 4 months, which would be February. We do find out later that Elicia is born pre-mature, but since she was healthy it couldn't have been all that early. So this gives us a better estimate of about January or February.

One dedicated fan actually attempted to calculate Ed's birthday, so I'll share that with you in a moment. Unfortunately, their English wasn't very good, so I tried to reconstruct the message as best I could. If you have any clarifications on it, please contact me. If you have any questions about it, I most likely won't be able to answer them because it's been too long since I've seen this and don't remember most of what they're talking about.

The day when Ed and Al set out after setting fire to their house is October 3rd (night time). The next episode starts at October 4th. They travel for 3 days and 2 nights, so Episode 5 is October 6th. Episode 6 is October 6th, then they eat dinner and head to bed, which becomes October 7th. After that, assuming each picture means 1 day, when we get to Edward reading in the library, it is October 11. Then we're at the scene outside with Ed and Nina playing in the snow. Date Range Age Feb–Oct, 1899 00 Feb–Oct, 1900 01 Feb–Oct, 1901 02 . . . . . . Feb–Oct, 1908 09 Feb–Oct, 1909 10 Feb–Oct, 1910 11 Feb–Oct, 1911 12 Feb–Oct, 1912 13 Feb–Oct, 1913 14 Feb–Oct, 1914 15 Feb–Oct, 1915 16 Feb–Oct, 1916 17 The big assumption made there is that each picture means one day, which may very well not be true at all. Alphonse even makes the statement "We spent the months before the exam". Following the timeline above, the time between when they leave home and his birthday would only be a month and a few days tops; he would have used the word 'weeks' for that time-frame, using 'months' suggests a considerable longer amount of time has passed. Thus it seems like Ed's birth date would be at least a month AFTER October 11th, if not more.

The first episode shows us that it is Continental year 1910, and that Ed is 11 years old, which would seem to indicate that he was born in the year 1899. However, logically Ed could have been born at any time in the final months of 1898 as well as the first months of 1899, based on the snowy backdrop to his 12th birthday (the Alchemy Exam), and still have been 11-years-old in October of 1910 (Mother). If he was indeed born in December, it would have been in 1898... if it fell slightly later in winter, such as January or February, it would have been 1899. Apparently the second manga Guidebook for Fullmetal Alchemist gives a timeline which specifies that both Edward and Winry are born in 1899. (Note: Once I get confirmation of this, we can narrow Ed's birthday to between Jan 1, 1899 and Feb 11, 1899).

Now, at the end of one episode (49, 50, or 51... I can't remember which exactly) when Alphonse is giving the information for the next episode, he says "In the year 1916, 16 demons covered the skies of London." At this time, Ed is 16 years old, which could fit since we only know that he would be 17 by February 1916, and thus he could be 16 before then.

Okay, now if all that wasn't confusing enough, there seems to be other information indicating that Ed was born in 1905. When Ed arrived in our world, it was 1921 AD and he was 16 years old (Ed has his 16th birthday in the hospital shortly after the Lab 5 incident on the day Winry arrives from Resembool, during the episode "Fullmetal Heart"), thus indicating that Ed would have been born in 1905. And then in one of the OVAs (entitled Children, I believe), it is stated that in our world, "Edward Elric will be 100 years old in 2005", which indicates a birth year of 1905. This is all easily explained, however. Our world and Ed's world are two different dimensions, and the years do not correlate between the two. In the movie, while Ed is in our 1923, when we visit Mustang at a snowy outpost, it says "Continental Calender Year 1917." That's 6 years behind our calender.

Periodic Table
There is nothing to suggest that Edward has a photographic memory. As a genius alchemist, he has significant knowledge of chemical elements and remembers them by heart, not by sight. CorbeauKarasu 21:24, December 24, 2009 (UTC)

Father
That's actually a bit complicated, but I don't think we can say Edward has any family relations with Father, because the fact that Father was made out of Hohenheim's blood doesn't make him his 'child' in the true sense of the word.

Father is neither a son nor a clone to Hohenheim, but rather a being created through an alchemical process and, in my view, making that a family relation is going a bit too far into the meaning of Father's creation, since Father seems to simbolize more of a 'negative' side of Hohenheim, or a 'mirrored' version of him. Even though, I don't think we can say he's a clone, either, cause his original purpose was not to 'make another Hohenheim', but rather a different, new and improved being out of 'human blood', but with no family bonds gone beyond Creator and creature. --Turdaewen 04:56, December 28, 2009 (UTC)

=2010=

Pimp
Can we add some pix of the pimp ed memes here? Ty 13:45, April 16, 2010 (UTC)

CHAPTER INFORMATION
Regarding points in the story as well as ALL OF THE TRIVIA, I feel it would be highly helpful to include citation data like the actual wikipedia does. Often I come to fan-wikis and find curious information with absolutely no mention of which episode or chapter the information was cited from; something that fustrates me because I would like to revisit the chapter in which said information was dispersed.

For example, one the first points of trivia data mentions that Edward writes his alchemic notes in the form of travelogue, and that's it. No mentioning if that was from an omake or within a chapter of the story. As of today there are EXACTLY ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN chapters out, both in Japan and scanlated in the U.S.A. To find that exact piece of information on my own with not even a hint of where it came from, would take hours of personal effort, something I do not desire to take just to find a single tidbit of information.

What I am suggesting is that EVERY MEMBER OF THIS WIKI take a personal initiative to cite key information whenever they can; something that will make this wiki stand far beyond the others. I mean some fan-wikis don't even bother to state the first appearance of a character! As for me I will act upon my advice and do my best to cite information, BUT ONLY IF you(the main staff) approve of my request and idea. Thank you for taking your time to read this

132.177.53.226 06:22, May 12, 2010 (UTC)

It's in Chapter 10. CorbeauKarasu 12:47, May 12, 2010 (UTC)


 * Kind of missing the point there. Thanks for the information though. 132.177.53.226 13:36, May 12, 2010 (UTC)

Height
How did he grow so tall?


 * Well, we did miss everything between Ed at 16 and Ed at 18, not to mention yet another multi-year timeskip to the family picture. Besides that, it was theorized that Ed's short stature was partially due to much of his nutritional intake being sent straight to Al's body inside the Gate instead of staying with Edward's body. With Al out of the Gate, that process would likely no longer occur. CorbeauKarasu 18:07, June 13, 2010 (UTC)
 * Wait... i added a bit about ed's original automail being heavy, weighing him down and possibly playing a part in his short stature, why was that deleted? It was an interesting bit of information and since it was actually theorized by one of the characters (dominic) i think we should include it. Fmaclones 21:25, August 27, 2010 (UTC)
 * Wait... i added a bit about ed's original automail being heavy, weighing him down and possibly playing a part in his short stature, why was that deleted? It was an interesting bit of information and since it was actually theorized by one of the characters (dominic) i think we should include it. Fmaclones 21:25, August 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * I saw that, and considered changing it since it was just Dominic's opinion, not actual fact. I think it is more of what CorbeauKarasu said with respect to Al's body. You also have to consider that Ed was short even before he received his auto-mail, as seen in many flashbacks.--Full Metal Fan 21:06, August 27, 2010 (UTC)

And given al's decrepit state before he was rescued, i highly doubt that a significant portion of ed's nutrition was transfered to al's body, just barely enough to keep him alive and functioning, but certainly not enough to cripple ed's growth, as it was shown also that he ate alot. Fmaclones 21:25, August 27, 2010 (UTC)

Also, ed's growth patterns tend to be significantly influenced by his automail. His growth slowed significantly after the installation of his automail arm and leg, and he began a big growth spurt after the replacement of the old automail limbs with lighter ones. at that time al was still receiving nutrition from ed's body, so i think that it was a combination of three things: al receiving a portion of nutrition from ed's body, ed's heavy automail limbs as well as genetics, which apparently made him a late bloomer of sorts. Fmaclones 21:25, August 27, 2010 (UTC)

o.0 wait i have another theory. Since al's body still existed, it makes sense that it would still require sleep, even though al himself commented that he was unable to sleep. Which would mean that al's body received sleep from ed's body (e.g. ed's sleep was shared between the two) and ed's body only got half the time to grow his body. that would explain alot about ed's short stature o.0 Fmaclones 02:40, August 29, 2010 (UTC)

Well, that is the theory that Edward and Alphonse agreed upon, that the excesses of nutrients and sleep Ed was taking in were being transferred to Al's body. CorbeauKarasu 04:20, August 29, 2010 (UTC)

Pic of ed
Would it be better to have the picture of ed in the infobox to be one from the 2009 anime instead of from the promotional poster of the 2009 anime? It would seem more accurate that way since the promotional pic doesn't show his characteristic red coat. Waterdrop95 03:18, July 27, 2010 (UTC)

Well, actually,his red coat is in the picture, draped over his left arm. Pictures of Edward of high quality are hard to find, especially when trying to include both his red coat and his automail arm. Previously, we'd used images that didn't showcase his arm, but when I realized that the current picture includes both (while also being extraordinarily badass), I figured it was a pretty good fit.CorbeauKarasu 03:22, July 27, 2010 (UTC)

I guess you're right about that. But maybe you can show a pic of Ed with his automail arm in the automail section, because you don't really see Ed's arm most of the time, only when he's battling and when he's getting his automail checked.

Waterdrop95 21:21, July 28, 2010 (UTC)

About the 2003 anime series
I'm sorry. I'm getting tired of writing, please watch more about episodes 19-22 to get more information of what Ed did in the 5 Lab and I'll get more info on other stuff later.

24.189.186.173 11/14/10 at 4:29 p.m. (UTC)

Ed transmuting after timeskip?
In the trivia, it was written that in an omake and final ending credits, Ed was shown being able to transmute from a circle. As far as I know, Ed can no longer practice ANY alchemy as he no longer has a Gate of Truth. Also, I have read the manga and watched the 2009 anime and I haven't found any evidence of Ed being able to use alchemy after the series had ended. If I'm wrong, can someone please cite the source of the information?

No, you're not wrong. In fact, Arakawa already said that "FMA finishes with the end of the Fullmetal Alchemist". That is just wishful thinking of immature fans who wish FMA would go on forever and want to come up with excuses to say "it isn't over". It would make absolutely no sense to make a whole series about how "people would overcome the power of alchemy" to, at the end, make them depend on it again. Wishing Edward would make alchemy again is tantamount of not getting FMA at all (and the whole 'two years later' sequence is there exactly to make perfectly clear that FMA is over and Edward has ceased to be the Fullmetal Alchemist). Turdaewen 12:35, January 4, 2011 (UTC)

Trivia
I think it would be best try to separate whether a trivia is regard to the manga or the 2003 series. I have seen many trivias that mix the two up, relating something that is only stated in one of the two stories as if it was general to the whole of FMA, which may confuse people, especially when it comes to timeline and sequence/events that are present, but slightly different, in both series.

I also think it would be extremely helpful to make articles of both 2003 and 2009/manga series' timelines.Turdaewen 12:42, January 4, 2011 (UTC)

"Napoleonic" denial of shortness
As a history buff I gotta bring this up. I don't think that term's very accurate. As convenient as it might be to associate "Napoleon" with "short" since that's a pretty widespread image of him, I don't think reinforcing the myth that Napoleon was short is very appropiate in the context of describing Ed's personality since while Ed's very defensive of his height, Napoleon was not only of average height for his time, he wasn't defensive about his height.

Minor complaint, I know, but it had to be brought up. *Shrug*

Talon7 01:49, March 30, 2011 (UTC)

I understand your point, but whether or not Napoleon himself was short, "napoleonic" is the psychological term used to describe people who have complexes about their height. CorbeauKarasu 13:53, March 30, 2011 (UTC)

Edward name's origin
Just to clarify: Arakawa never "admited" to have taken Edward's name from Tim Burton's movie, neither did she said the surname Elric was taken from the book... In fact, when they asked her about it, what she says exactly is: "Sorry, but I've never read that book... nor did I read Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or any of those fantasy books everyone who enjoys literature read."

So I don't know how people could have taken, from such statement, that she "admited" to have taken the name from there.

In the same omake as that statement, a couple of lines before, she said "All FMA names were taken from a Western names' dictionary", so, it would be senseless to believe otherwise.

In sum: all FMA names (even the ones that make "sense" to the character) were taken somewhat randomly from a dictionary. The surnames, the only ones that were determined by something were the military staff, which is already stated in their respective pages... all others are indefined until proven otherwise by reliable source. Turdaewen 12:30, January 12, 2012 (UTC)

Suggestion
I sugest we clean a bit the trivia part of this page, since it's very clutched and with lots of info that could be elsewhere. For example: the trivia about the automail disvantages could very well be placed under the automail article, with a slight reference in the trivia, such as "Dominic suggest that Edward may not be growing propperly due to the (link)disvantages of automail(link)." Turdaewen 12:38, January 12, 2012 (UTC)

I have two things to add:

The first is that Arakawa did INDEED admit that Edward is named after Edward Scissorhands. It is said in the Hagaren DX guide book, which hasn't been released in english so far. It's already quite a few years ago that someone translated some information from the book on the fm_alchemist community on lj and I can link to this post.

The other thing is that I don't think that Ed was ever called "Hero of the People" in the manga. Actually, it seems to be a rarity( at least at the beginning of the manga) that Ed helps other people with their problems(though he usually saves everyone who is in life-threatening danger), after all he didn't intend on helping the people of Youswell until he recognized himself in them(before that he even was fine with Yoki burning their inn). In fact Roy even comments in the extra manga written by Arakawa for the new movie that Ed helping people is an unusual sight. So I don't think he ever gained such a title in the manga and I don't quite remember that someone ever called him like that. I could be wrong about this though.91.43.251.224 22:18, April 21, 2012 (UTC)

There isn't such a guidebook. That's probably a prank on people, or an non-official guidebook. The official guidebooks GanGan has issued on FMA are:

- Perfect Guidebook 1, 2 and 3

- Character Guidebook

- Manga Artbook 1, 2 and 3

- Fullmetal Alchemist Chronicle

- FMA Yon-koma and Sketch book

Moreover, Arakawa has said in the manga omakes that she didn't have any inspiration on Ed's, but all FMA names were taken from a Western Name Dictionary.

About the "Hero of the People" thing, I also think it's something to consider. I'm not entirely sure about it either. Turdaewen 22:45, April 22, 2012 (UTC)

The book he's referring to was translated into English in 2007 and i read it when it came out. http://www.amazon.com/The-Fullmetal-Alchemist-Archive-ebook/dp/B003NHSUM2/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1335136183&sr=1-3-catcorr

CorbeauKarasu 23:11, April 22, 2012 (UTC)