Sloth (2003 anime)

Sloth (Japanese:スロウス, Surōsu) was a Homunculus initially created by Edward Elric and his brother Alphonse in an attempt to transmute their deceased mother Trisha back to life. She is a character exclusive to the 2003 anime series, named after Sloth, a vastly different character from the manga.

Anime
The organic mass that was formed from the failed event was fed Red Stones by Dante, thus giving Sloth the appearance of the late Trisha. Sloth's unique ability as a Homunculus is to alter her body into pure water, which she uses as a means of transportation, espionage, and also killing by drowning her victims. She is also seemingly able to convert her full length purple dress into water, but no other clothing, as her secretary's uniform tears when she encounters the Elrics underground. Her Ouroboros tattoo is located above the area where her heart would be. She is named for the sin of sloth, though similarly to Lust, the other female Homunculus, she does not appear to embody the sin herself. However, since sloth may also indicate apathy, Sloth's name may have been given due to her seeming indifference to the lives of others, though is particular to her, because Sloth is noticeably the calmest Homunculus, or it could be due to the fact that water flows with the path of least resistance. Either way, she rarely displays any intense emotion, though she often adopts a snide and patronizing manner, such as when introduced to Greed.

Soon after her creation, Sloth took on a second alias "Juliet Douglas," and played the role of secretary to Führer King Bradley, who is in reality the Homunculus Pride. Although she is the youngest Homunculus, Sloth is also seemingly one of the highest-ranked, and is shown giving orders to Envy. "Juliet Douglas" was allegedly the name of a soldier who sparked the war in Ishval by accidentally shooting an Ishvalan child. She was listed as being deceased, but her name still appears on the list of those in active duty of the military. This is noticed by Maes Hughes, who, hoping to uncover the Homunculi, asks Sloth, in her disguise, to get into contact with Doctor Marcoh. Sloth later accompanies Hughes to a hotel, where she says Doctor Marcoh is waiting for Hughes. Hughes begins to grill her, asking whether she really is Douglas or whether she just took her place. Sloth dismisses the accusations, but leads him to a room where she has arranged a rendezvous with Lust and Envy. After Lust is stabbed in the forehead, she and Sloth go after Hughes, but Envy has already killed him.

Investigating Hughes' murder, Sheska comes across the name "Juliet Douglas" many times, and reveals to Winry Rockbell a series of conflicting reports, including the fact that Douglas only looks about thirty years old, but should be in her fifties. The two young women break into the Central Military HQ telephone network hub, and connect to the Fuhrer's office, hoping to listen in on Douglas' phone calls. They are in luck; Envy calls Sloth from an insecure line to complain that he is getting bored of waiting for the Elrics to make a move. Without giving too much away, Sloth reprimands him, but quickly ends the call, having heard the interference. She makes her way to Winry and Sheska, intending to kill them. Winry recognizes her as bearing the same appearance as Trisha Elric, before being saved in the nick of time by Maria Ross.

Sloth later reveals herself to the Elric brothers, who are horrified by her. Sloth takes full advantage of her resemblance to their mother, frequently mocking them by acting like Trisha and using their hesitation as a chance to attack them. Although killing the Elrics is an objective of the Homunculi at this time, Sloth has her own personal reasons to kill them. She reveals late in the series that in fact, she had been suffering memories of Trisha and her life with her sons. Sloth does not wish to believe that she bears any relation to Trisha, and feels that, if she kills the Elrics, she can prove this to herself. She also remembers Hohenheim, whom she immobilizes with her liquid body giving Dante the opportunity to banish Hohenheim to the other side of The Gate

Sloth's motivations also lie in the hope that her master, Dante, will eventually make her human. She tells Lust that this is the ultimate goal of every homunculus and to this end, she follows Dante without complaint. She has been shown not to be completely devoid of human feelings, and replaces Edward and Alphonse with Wrath, as her child, which is frowned upon by Dante. Unfortunately for Wrath, it appears that Sloth never actually truely cared for him, for her last words to him were calling him a fool. Though Wrath does not take notice to this, and begged for Dante to bring her back to life through Alphonse, who became a living Philosopher's Stone.

Sloth's final appearance in the anime is during a battle with the Elrics at an abandoned warehouse, after she, along with Lust and Wrath, is sent to capture them. Encountering Shou Tucker, Sloth coldly informs him that she no longer wishes to allow him to continue with his experiments, having witnessed the "useless chimera doll" that Tucker created. She almost succeeds in her task, having charmed Alphonse into taking her side. However, she is severely weakened by a bone of Trisha Elric (the remains of the human on whom she is based) and is ultimately betrayed by Lust, who attacks her to prevent her from reforming her liquid body. Lust has already been through similar emotions that Sloth goes through, and recognizes that Sloth must die, as she stands in the way of the Elrics making her human. Sloth escapes Lust when Wrath shows up to attack the latter, and Sloth hides in Alphonse's armour and controls his movements, intending to return him to Dante. Edward confronts her, and she takes time to explain to him why she must kill both he and his brother before going on to inform him that she should hate him anyway for ever creating her. She admits that Lust was being truthful where her memories were concerned, and it is left ambiguous as to whether Sloth ever truly believed Dante's lies. In any case, at this point she has the Elrics completely at her mercy, but unfortunately Wrath, having killed Lust and absorbed Trisha's remains moments earlier, embraces Sloth and the remains cause her to become immobile. It is then that Sloth recognizes the moment of her defeat. Edward uses alchemy to transform her body into ethanol, and she slowly evaporates into the atmosphere. She had been lying about her feelings all along, and she took the opportunity to admit so as she died. She was the Third Homunculus to die. Sloth later appears as a cameo in the penultimate episode of the series as another form Envy takes to torment Edward in battle.

Last words: "Nicely done, sweetheart. Clean up after yourselves and take care of each other."

Trivia

 * All of Sloth's "clothes" appear to be nothing more than an extent of her watery powers, as she is able to transform outfits along with her body at will.
 * Though limited and not as prominent as Envy, Sloth has been shown to use her water composition to alter her appearance, such as hair color, eye color, and skin color.
 * She is paired with Wrath and the two of them receive entirely opposite approaches from the alchemists who created them: Izumi ultimately embraces Wrath as the child she bore that died while Edward refuses to consider Sloth as his mother to the point of saying Homunculi don't have souls, even though Al does and Sloth, to her own hatred, does as well.
 * Sloth's Ouroboros tattoo is located in the same spot as Izumi's flamel tattoo; above her left breast. This may symbolise how Sloth and Izumi are similar, both being Wrath's "mother".