Automail
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Automail is a type of prosthetic limb present in the series Fullmetal Alchemist that is used by various characters in the series as a replacement for lost or damaged body parts.
Automail is made from metal and linked directly to the nerves of the body. Automail can be used on both humans and animals. In certain situations, automail can be designed to replace huge portions of the body. Also present in the series are normal prosthetics, not linked to the body's nervous system. Many amputees choose to use these over automail, despite the numerous advantages automail has. This is because of the intense pain experienced during the surgery to attach automail to the body as well as when the automail is first connected, when all the nerves first connect.
Well-made automail allows a range of movement and strength as good as or better than the original limb it replaces. It is never directly stated how automail is powered, but it is known that the technology grew from the science of alchemy. When the metal coverings are removed, a type of fiber is seen.
In the series, there also exist automail designers, and repair personnel known as mechanics. Episode 26 of Fullmetal Alchemist, "Her Reason," provides much insight into the world of automail and mechanics.
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[edit] Rush Valley
Rush Valley is a city in the desert, whose major industry is automail. It is considered by mechanics to be a sort of Holy Land. Almost all of the people have some form of automail or another, and there are numerous shops and outfitters throughout the city. Automail use is so common, in fact, that Al is thought by most of the people of the city to simply have gone a bit overboard, and had his entire body redone in automail.
Rush Valley is also nicknamed "The Automail Mecca" and "The Boomtown of the Broken Down."
[edit] Automail users
[edit] Edward Elric
Edward, the main character of the series, has two sets of automail, one in place of his right arm, and one in place of his left leg. The artificial arm and leg were given to him to replace the limbs Ed lost during his ill-fated attempt at human transmutation. Edward's automail functions well enough to allow him to engage in martial arts practice, acrobatics, and fighting. Edward can also transmute his automail arm to add a wrist-mounted blade to it, or place spikes on his knuckles. The mechanic that created his automail was Pinako Rockbell, with help from her granddaughter Winry Rockbell.
After a battle with Scar, Ed's arm was destroyed and had to be rebuilt. A new, lighter design was adopted, after concerns that the previous model was hampering Ed's speed and possibly stunting his growth. While it was a success in this regard, it sacrificed some of its durability in exchange, and it remained incomplete until after the 5th Laboratory incident. Winry realized that she forgot a bolt in the arm soon after Ed entered the Lab. Ed however didn't realize this and thought it was his fault the automail broke. In truth, it was a combination of both. This model was created and maintained by Winry herself.
In the Fullmetal Alchemist movie, Ed has lost both his original limbs and the original automail that replaced them, but not the fixings attached to his body. He has replaced them with what appear to be normal prosthetics built on Earth technology, but the skin-like covering on his arm can be removed, revealing a small motor-driven apparatus which increases the strength and maneuverability of his arm. At the end of the film, Winry replaces it with Rockbell automail, which she had the foresight to lengthen to account for Ed's two years of growth.
In manga chapters 69-70, under military orders, Winry was sent to Briggs with reason "to upgrade Edward Elric's automail", which is incapable of functioning properly under Briggs' freezing temperature. However, besides that, she also minimizes the weight of the automail, much to Ed's joy, as his initial automail had been very heavy, and his balance perception adjusted to compensate. Using subsequent lighter automail meant adjusting to the new weight of his body and limbs, a long process of trial and error, which could prove fatal if he entered combat with unfamiliar automail. Working with heavy automail again would have meant becoming re-accustomed to its weight, as well as it having an impact on his growth. Unfortunately, the reduced weight also means reduced durability, but as Winry reassures him, "The important parts are reinforced."
[edit] Lieutenant Colonel Frank Archer
Lieutenant Colonel Frank Archer is an intelligence officer in the military who uses automail. After the destruction of the left half of his body at Lior he was heavily modified with automail, including the left side of his face. This may suggest that automail is capable of replacing even vital organs (also suggested in the manga, during volume eight, as Ed and Al walk around the town of Rush Valley, and Al comments that he doesn't feel self-conscious because citizens assume he has full-body automail). In addition, his arm was equipped with a folding auto-cannon weapon, while his mouth contained a machine gun in the place of a tongue. As a result, he doesn't open his mouth to talk and so it can be inferred that a vocoder was implanted somewhere in him. He would later use both weapons to devastating effect. Actually, due to his extensive automail, he can be considered a cyborg, rather than an amputee (all other automail users are amputees). Frank Archer is exclusive to the anime.
[edit] Colonel Genz Bresslau
Colonel Genz Bresslau is the Armor-Piercing Alchemist. With the camouflaged automail arm, Genz fought Edward on three occasions, modifying his own body with more automail for every encounter. Despite having been defeated on every occasion, Genz still calls himself "the strongest". Exclusive to the "Broken Angel" video game.
[edit] Paninya
In the anime, Paninya is a girl from Rush Valley with two automail legs and a right automail arm. However, in the manga, only her legs are automail. A pickpocket who targets tourists, she met Ed after stealing his State Alchemist's watch. Her automail gives her increased agility, allows her to run on walls, and jump from building to building. Her legs also contain hidden weapons:a blade in the right leg and a cannon in the left.
In the anime, Paninya only steals Ed's watch at the prompting of an angry Winry Rockbell, who believes that Ed is overly reliant on alchemy and doesn't appreciate well-made automail.
[edit] Bald
A minor character, Bald is a renegade member of the State Military, who desired an automail arm in order to make himself stronger. The military prohibited unnecessary use of automail (for any purpose other than replacing lost limbs), and Bald deserted. He acquired the automail arm he sought, which includes two gun barrels and a concealed switchblade, and organized a group of outlaws who attempted to seize a train containing several important military personnel. In hand-to-hand combat with Ed, Ed's automail hand was able to shatter Bald's relatively inferior automail. Then, Alphonse sent a smashing fist into Bald's cheek, leaving him unconscious on the floor of the train. After the rest of the train ride, Bald attempted to slice Roy Mustang with a surprise attack, but Mustang was too quick. With a snap of his fingers, Bald was stopped in his tracks and burned in front of everybody in Central Station. Bald was then imprisoned by the military.
The blade is hardly seen in either the Manga or the Anime.
[edit] Wrath
At the end of Fullmetal Alchemist anime, Winry fits Wrath with an automail right arm and left leg, as he lost these when Dante flung them into the Gate. Wrath's automail model seems slightly more resistant than Edward's, but this may be due to Wrath's superhuman strength.
In the movie Conqueror of Shamballa, Wrath's automail has broken down, due to the lack of maintenance. Winry finds him near Izumi's grave, and offers to repair his arm and leg. During the fight with Gluttony, Wrath embeds his automail arm into the ground in the center of a transmutation circle to use as an anchor when Gluttony tries to pry him away. Before Alphonse transmutes both of them to open the Gate, his arm is severely damaged from Gluttony pulling at his body.
It should be noted that this version of Wrath, as a child homonculus with automail, is exclusive in the anime. Wrath, of the manga realm, is the equivalent to the homonculus Pride, from the anime.
[edit] Buccaneer
Captain Buccaneer is armed with an M1913 Automail, known as the Crocodile for its resemblance to a crocodile's mouth and its powerful ability to crush a person's limbs, whether natural or artificial, after winding it up. His automail appears to be based from a chainsaw. His automail is special that it was designed to work in Brigg's freezing environment area. Normally, automail made from regular metal in a freezing environment can be capable of causing discomfort, and at later stages, frostbite, since body heat will release much faster through metal from skin. Buccaneer's automail is made from special alloy that has light weight and transfers heat at slower rate than regular automail, made from duralumin, carbon fiber, nickel, and copper. The special alloy also made Edward unable to destroy it at first, since he assumed the automail was composed of iron.
Besides this combat automail, while not on patrol duty, he is shown equipped with standard automail like Ed's. He used it in close combat to take Sloth down when he intrudes into Briggs central layer.
During scouting party's rescuing attempt in the tunnel in chapter 70, he is shown to be retrofitted with M-1910R "Mad Bear" automail, designed as close-quarter combat automail, which resembles regular automail attached with diamond claw. He proudly shows this to Winry, who became fascinated.
Buccaneer is exclusive to the manga.
[edit] Den
The Rockbell family's dog, though with all limbs intact in the flashbacks, is shown with an automail left foreleg later in his life. It can be assumed that Pinako and Winry Rockbell work as his mechanic as Winry is seen doing so in the very last scene of the movie.
[edit] Automail mechanics
[edit] Rockbell family
The Rockbells are known for being able to help people. Pinako and her granddaughter Winry are automail mechanics.
[edit] Pinako
Pinako is a mechanic of some renown, designed and built Ed's first set of automail with help from her granddaughter, Winry. Her reputation as a young hot-shot mechanic is still fresh in some Rush Valley mechanic's minds, though she is now neither young nor hot-headed. One automail maker is stunned at the very mention of Pinako and refers to her as "The Pantheress of Risembool."
[edit] Winry
Winry Rockbell is Ed and Al's childhood friend. She's a self-professed "gearhead" who helped her grandmother Pinako build Ed's automail. She occasionally travels with the Elric Brothers to maintain Ed's artificial limbs. When she created Ed's second set of automail, she neglected to insert a screw into his shoulder piece. This manifested itself negatively when Ed went to the 5th Laboratory and fought the Slicer Brothers. Her parents were doctors who were killed during the Ishval War (Ishbal War in the Funimation adaptation of the anime) by Roy Mustang under Basque Grand's orders (Scar killed her parents in the manga when they were trying to treat his wounds). In the anime, Winry has been accused of being in love with Ed but denies all claims, even though this might account for her special treatment of Ed's automail. Subtle hints in the anime and movie also hinted at her love for Edward. In the manga, Winry admits to being in love with Ed.
[edit] Viola Amore
Viola Amore was an automail engineer. Her family were victims of human transmutation.
She is exclusive to "Sonata of Memories" game.
[edit] Ricardo Family
The Ricardo family lives in the mountains outside of Rush Valley. There are two mechanics in the family: Lear (Rydel in the manga) Ricardo and his father Dominic. Dominic is known for his exceptional work, and is considered a master mechanic. He is, however, highly unsociable and avoids people as much as possible, forcing anyone who wants his aid to take a long trek through the mountains. He was the designer of Paninya's automail legs.
[edit] Dominic
Dominic is a mechanic in Rush Valley. Though he's extremely talented, he rarely gets the recognition he deserves. In the manga, his dream was to build automail with cannons inside. He gave Paninya her legs and arm. He seems to have had a very unpleasant past involving Pinako Rockbell that is seemingly comical.
[edit] Garfiel
Garfiel is a mechanic of good skill who takes Winry as his apprentice in Rush Valley.
He is exclusive to the manga.
[edit] See also
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