Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood's Fuhrer King Bradley otherwise known as the homunculus wrath is a
Goddamn badass due to his character arc being full of legendary moments and epic fights
He is easily one of the most distinct and recognizable characters in the series yet
There is quite a bit more to bradley than destroying tanks and sword fighting with his mouth
It's been said that he isn't a great
personification of the deadly sin that he was named after and while I do agree that he isn't as appropriate a
representation of his namesake as some other Homunculi
He is much less of the classic temperamental anger that may have been expected and much more of a man depicting a cold
unrelenting fury
Dictated by his hatred of humanity and his idea of how people should live their lives
Yet a steadfast and unyielding as he is when approaching life Bradley is a man of
contradiction
despite yearning deep down for some
fundamentally human elements in his life he abhors mankind for several reasons pertaining to his ideals and
Despite going through life following a path that had been laid out for him from the start
Bradley's Philosophy is one predicated on
self-Reliance wrath's
characterization presents itself in three layers
The first is the one that we become accustomed to through glimpses of him during the first act of this series the whimsical
Almost kindly older man this surface-level characterization contradicts his true name being pretty pleasant and genial on a shallow level
But this is very clearly a mask and a facade created out of necessity in order to deceive and manipulate
Through his role as Fuhrer to further his goal and for this reason
There is very little need to try and extract anything meaningful from this
beneath this first layer is the Bradley that we see for the majority of this story and the
One with whom all of those big fights and moments are attributed to the agent of destruction
The second layer is a man completely fixated on his role purpose and ideology a man who strives for progress using whatever means
Some would refer to this as Bradley's true self the persona that best reflects who he is and it's hard to argue with that
However while it is not a facade like the first one it does hide certain aspects of him the third and final layer is
comprised of the deepest essence of Bradley his sentimentality his subconscious longing and his ironically human side and
While the occasions where this buried side of him shines through our few and far between and he hardly lets anyone see this
These occasions are so significant in piecing together just who this man is
Now with those layers of characterization established
We have a framework for how Bradley
Functions with the world and his background and history lend a little bit of insight as to how he became this way
King Bradley is a homunculus with the Philosopher's stone inside him
But the process he went through in becoming a homunculus was far different than any of his brothers or sisters
Rather than being created as an artificial life-form
Bradley was injected with the stones power while he was human he was born and mercilessly trained for one purpose
to become father's wrath and the fuhrer of Amestris a tool for Fathers grand plan
He was in a pretty large group of candidates for this
but he was the only one able to show adequate strength to accept the stones wrathful myriad of souls without dying and
Thus he was chosen
Bradley has told mustang that he isn't sure if the soul he has is his original one
Or maybe as it was just the most powerful wrathful soul, and he doesn't question this too much
But it is one of the few little signs of his third layer rearing its head
It seems a bit uncharacteristic for a man as forceful as Bradley to ponder such human and existentialist questions
But as we find out by the story's end these thoughts are completely fitting for who he is
He has always been an embodiment of unyielding anger
Even if his outward demeanour sometimes seems to offer alternate explanations to occasions where this wrath is visible
One such occasion was during hughes's funeral where he was literally shaking in rage
Mustang mistook this as a sign of Bradley grieving
But it is revealed later on that the fuhrer was actually enraged at Alicia's cries for her father being furious at her voice
Punctuating what was supposed to be silence. He uses his wrath as his outlet
It is what fuels him to fight and destroy and the destruction
He dishes out is his own singular language a way of communicating just how agonizingly frustrating he finds humans, to be
Why in his fights is Bradley unsurpassed in terms of how far he is willing to go to achieve victory? in my opinion,
It's not because he really believes in or desires his end goal. All that much
It's because no words can properly communicate the fury he feels at times
King Bradley is a man of action
Having been chosen as wrath through sheer strength and will Bradley values independence
He has a true respect for those that rely only on
themselves to strive forward towards their ambitions because he can relate and knows how difficult and admirable this is as
Such he has a huge amount of disdain for the concept of a God he is very anti religion
Chastising the Ishvalans for over alliance on deism and scorning Scar for his beliefs yet
I don't think that he despises the idea of God's existence as much as what this idea has led to
When people scream out to him that the hammer of God will strike him down,
he finds it pathetic because they can't find the will to strike him down on their own and
This attitude that he so hates is a byproduct of religion
So I don't quite think that Bradley hates the fundamental idea of religion or God
He hates that these ideas tend to regress mankind and make them meek and unwilling to act for themselves if God exists
He provided humans with the ability to act
so it is their obligation to act if he doesn't exist that should change nothing if
You are capable of something yourself
Then don't rely on others to carry you create your own future using your own power
Or so Bradley things you will suffer the hammer of God. God you say now
This is intriguing how much longer do you think your God plans to wait before unleashing his fury? just
How many thousands of lives must I take before he decides to strike me down open your eyes
God is nothing more than a construct created by man to inspire fear and promote order
If you wish to see me struck down for all these atrocities use your own hands to do so not God's
Bradley claims that everything that a human is born into is meaningless
race socioeconomic
status sex, whatever
They're all social constructs that don't truly bind people to a certain type of life unless they allow themselves to be bound
what matters in life is not what you were born into but what you do with yourself in spite of
circumstance in the end there is no one to rely on and no excuses to be had and
Only through true independent strength in the face of high Stakes can one live a worthwhile life
This is a philosophy that he built up all throughout his life and one that he strongly adheres to until the end
Don't rely on God other people fate or Karma to deliver your desires to you
Grasp power with your own two hands and better yourself
He strongly disagrees with Ling's views on Kingship which consists of the belief that those in power should serve for the people
Instead Bradley believes that living for others should not be a concern for a true King
Those citizens are pathetic and gain nothing of value from a king who bends over backwards for them
He finds the idea of altruistic sacrifice to be abhorrent and an insult to life itself
This is likely why he displays such a respect for exceptional fighters
He has either directly or indirectly shown respect and admiration for the power of people like Mustang, Lan Fan, Fu, and Scar
because he sees how much dedication and
Self-Sacrifice it must have taken for them to hone their skills and he infers that this must have come from true inner strength
But on the other hand he completely disregards those that he determines as weak
Thinking of them as stepping stones for those who actually want to make something of themselves
It's a very classically shonen villain mindset a very darwinistic one yet
It's given a bit of a twist because it is used in the context of a setting where religion is more prevalent and more importantly
One where mankind constantly finds a way to surprise Bradley
He hates when people have no conviction in their ideals
he scorns Scar for turning against the teachings of Ishvala and while one may just chalk that up to his disdain for the
ramifications of religion I think
that what he hates most of all is the
inconsistency Scar spent a significant portion of his life
Opposing the concept of alchemy, yet he eventually accepted it
It's a change of mind that Bradley cannot understand and thus cannot have respect for because he is
Uncompromising and deliberate with absolutely everything he does
Because it is impressive actions in the past and his incredibly strong homunculus body
Bradley has quite a bit of pride in being a superior
Life-Form which is appropriate given his homunculus moniker in the original full metal alchemist however
He does have a grudging respect for mankind and their infuriating unpredictability and survivability
But apparently there are those like you who can learn, who can change
That's one more reason why I can't stand you humans
It infuriates me when I can't predict how you'll behave
Bradley can't help, but admire the tenacity of the species
But additionally he finds a sort of morbid fascination in humans he hates them yet by my estimations
He seems to kind of enjoy the variability that they add to an existence that has been otherwise
Foretold and gone according to plan every step of the way and this point about Bradley's disillusionment with a pre-planned life is very
Important because of how it applies to his wife
He explains to hawkeye that he feels a great amount of pride in being married to his wife
Because it was the only choice that he ever made of his own volition, and he greatly values this freedom of choice
no matter how small it may be
This is again a little glimpse into his third layer the underlying sentimentality that Bradley doesn't usually show the world
He carries on with his duties, and he doesn't really seem to think that the things he's doing are right
But he just doesn't care about whether they're right or not
Bradley is fulfilling a role in the way that he sees fit and morals have no place
He doesn't seem to actively take much issue with being used as a pawn yet at the same time
It's clear that he strongly values choice
He has lived a life completely lacking in freedom except for one thing his wife
And so he'd used her as a representation of his freedom to choose even if he was just limited to one choice
Whether his love for her is an extension desire for a small amount of freedom or an actual romantic love is
Unclear but what is clear is that he retains at least some semblance of his original
humanity through this small desire for a choice and he truly cherishes this
This is why Bradley considers his life to have been one worth living he died satisfied
Not because of his role as an all-Powerful homunculus, but because of what humanity added to his life
humanity gave him a chance to fight with his all against Fierce opponents humanity gave him some fun and
entertainment, and most of all humanity gave him choice
I lived my life
by forever following the man that had been sent for me, thanks to the
idiosyncrasies of humanity
it was at least a
life worth living for and maybe even a life worth dying for
As a man that has played down the idea of religion time and time again
Bradley Finds humor in the Act that contributed to his death as
He's about to land a fatal blow on Scar the solar eclipse which is commonly known to be a sign of God
Plays a huge role in his defeat
Bradley completely dismissed all of the people that told him that the hammer of God would strike him down
And then that very thing happened
He admits that it may be the universe trying to prove something to him if that sort of thing is possible
Now there's always a chance that this could be coincidence, but given all of this context. I think the symbolic irony speaks for itself
Purrr King Bradley dies with a smile on his face and this smile can be interpreted as a simple
Satisfaction in how his life played out, but I think that there are alternate explanations for it
Maybe he was again reminded of how persistent humans were
Perhaps in being defeated by Scar he felt that his Darwinistic philosophy was proved to be correct and found pride in that
after all the stronger person won, and that is fair or
Maybe he viewed this death as his ideals being proven wrong
And he found some solace in the fact that the world wasn't as cruel and cutthroat as he believed it to be
Perhaps his human side carried greater weight than it outwardly seemed, and he was secretly glad that the homunculi were on the losing side
There are many ways to view this smile
cynical or idealistic
Positive or negative however to its credit it remains open-ended and interpretive
After Bradley dies he was declared a martyr and a hero of the military despite the exact opposite being true
We have an interesting twist on the equivalent exchange rule here despite his terrible action than all of the death and suffering that he caused
Bradley has given honor, and almost universally acclaimed as a hero
It's one of the instances in the series that
allegorically goes against the principles of equivalent exchange or rather the concept of equivalent exchange on a personal and
Individual level if not a universal one if we're talking retributive justice
Bradley deserved far more Misery and far worse than what he got
but he dies relatively happy with how his life played out and although he probably doesn't care he gets off as an innocent man
There's a great amount of irony in his death a man who was so against religion was defeated due to what could be
Interpreted as an act of God and the man representing such war in conflict ended up being a symbol of peace after death
is there more to Bradley than he would have others think does he hate humans purely for their weakness and
inconsistency or does he also hate them because he sees tiny parts of himself within them and
identifies with their weaknesses
For a man who prides himself on independence and strength that can't be an easy thing to come to grips with if true
But I believe that what bothers bradley most is that within humans. He sees a freedom and beauty that he longs for
but cannot fully achieve
however in an appropriate contradiction in his death he reflected on the way he carried out his philosophy with pride and the way he
experienced small, but substantial bits of humanity to break the mundanity of a pawns life, and he deemed it all to be worth it
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