Winry Rockbell (ウィンリィ・ロックベル, Uinrī Rokkuberu) is a main supporting character of 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 is 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.
History[]
Winry pays a lot of attention to Ed's automail because of her deep feelings for him, 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.
When Ed passes his State Alchemy Exam, he writes to Winry and in response, Winry decides to go to Central to congratulate Ed. Unaware of the ill-timed nature of her visit, she goes to State Military HQ to meet Ed. However, she is abducted by the serial killer Barry the Chopper after he poses as a delivery girl and she takes an interest in his refrigerated van. When Ed finds Winry gone and traces of oil and loose bolts matching those used in his automail arm on the ground outside HQ, he attempts to pick up her trail and is eventually abducted himself. Both Winry and Ed are almost killed by Barry until Alphonse and the State Military come to rescue them and arrest Barry. After this, Winry observes Ed confessing to Al how he felt when Barry attacked him and is driven to tears upon hearing him confess that he couldn't save a little girl.
After traveling for a while with Ed and Al in the South, Winry announces that she is going to return to Central to see the Hughes family again. This decision has partly to do with finding out that Roy Mustang was the one responsible for killing her parents in the Ishvalan Civil War. After arriving this is when she learns about Maes's death, and that Maes was trying to help Roy Mustang maneuver to the position of Fuhrer.
Winry also connects with Sheska, who has uncovered various troubling facts about Fuhrer Bradley's secretary, Juliet Douglas. Sheska lends Winry one of her uniforms, and the two try to eavesdrop on phone calls coming to the Fuhrer's office. However, this leads to both girls being attacked by Sloth, whom Winry recognizes as the doppelganger of Ed's mother, Trisha. The girls are saved by the timely arrival of 2nd Lt Ross and Sergeant Brosh, and then agree to leave Central.
When they arrive in Resembool, Winry points out the man on the platform who she noticed watching her during their trip. However, when he approaches and calls her "Sara", Winry freaks out and drags Sheska a long distance before remembering that Sara was her mom's name. The man then shows up at the Rockbell house, causing both girls to panic and hide, but Pinako answers the door and then tells Winry that this man is Ed and Al's long lost father, Hohenheim.
Maria and Denny arrive in Resembool as well, looking for Ed and Al who have gone AWOL and are being hunted by the military. After Hohenheim gives a clue about a way his sons might try to sneak into Resembool, she builds a machine to take her to find the Elrics, but unfortunately is caught by Mustang's Unit (with Sheska). While being held captive she accuses Mustang of betraying Ed after he helped get him into the military and shows her anger towards him regarding her parents' murder before Hawkeye stopped her. This does mean that she is on hand when Mustang and his group finally locate the Elric brothers, and she gets to hear what has been going on with them. It is also here that she learns the truth that Mustang was also suffering when he was forced to kill her parents which is what inspired him to work towards becoming the Fuhrer in the first place allowing Winry to forgive him. Winry also learns that Mustang only pursed the Elrics to find out why they ran without coming to him first.
After Major Armstrong leaves to direct the other military troops away the rest of the group spends the rest of the day in Resembool. On the following day, first Hohenheim, then the military departs. Later when Sheska accidentally spills the news about Hughes's death, Winry also has to face Ed's anger for having kept it from him. Ed and Al soon decide to move on, but before they leave, Ed uses his alchemy to hide Al inside a statue, and also to dye his hair black. Winry begs for him to let her braid his hair before he goes, as a gesture of her support. Sadly for them both, it is the last time Winry will see Edward for two years.
After Ed disappears at the end of the anime, in the epilogue Winry takes care of Al while waiting for Edward to return until Al leaves to train under Izumi again. Winry headed to Rush Valley to receive automail engineering training under Dominic. When Ed finally does return to Amestris 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. Although Ed is skeptical that the new automail will fit, given that it's been two years since he last saw Winry and he has grown some, she teases him, "Who do you think you're dealing with here?"
Winry sees the rocket returning through the portal between the two worlds and announces to Sheska that Ed is on it, sadly stating that it really is goodbye this time. After Edward's departure, Winry continues working on automail with her grandmother, understanding that she needs to move on now that the Elric brothers aren't coming back.
Winry from the first movie, Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa.
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. While Ed tries to explain that it isn't the way it looked in the pictures, Winry becomes infuriated with jealousy and attacks him with wrenches and screwdrivers.
Another OVA 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 grandfather. It is unknown who Ed married, our world's Winry or his world's Winry who might have found a way across. However, since Ed has an automail left arm, it seems quite possible that it is the Winry from Amestris who is still looking after him, though now as his wife.
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[]
Rosie the Riveter (left) and Winry & Grandma Pinako Rockbell (right).
- One of Winry's artworks she is seen posing like Rosie the Riveter, a cultural icon of the United States which represents the women who worked in factories during World War II (see the image).
- In the most recent fan poll, Winry was ranked 5th most popular Fullmetal Alchemist character, making her the second most popular female character after Riza (who was ranked 3rd overall).
- Winry's trademark kerchief is colored green in the manga and 2009 anime, while in the 2003 anime, it's red, however, in the end of episode 51 she switches to a green one. Her jumpsuit was also colored as light purple.
- In both the main story and Conqueror of Shamballa, Winry is always taller than Edward. When she is 18 years old, her height is about 170cm+ while Edward's is 150cm+, being slightly taller than 12 year old Alphonse.
- In the OVA "Kids", one of the children looks almost identical to Winry and she is Edward Elric's great granddaughter, but 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 relevant is never explained. Evidently, Ed is revealed to be wearing Automail in the OVA, which implies that Winry may have gotten to our world, and fitted new types of automail for Ed.