dashing blonde hair

Edward Elric Appearance

As you can see from the image above, that is practically what Edward wears throughout his adventures. His inner jacket sometimes have different designs with huge zippers and it’s usually black while his pants stays tight and leathery. Edward sometimes wears only his sleeveless black shirt whenever they travel on warm places. His hair is describe as golden and the same with his eyes. Most of the time though he rips his clothes off! He always shows off his metal arm just to let people know that he is the Fullmetal alchemist.

If Edward just came out from the hospital or is hiding his identity from his pursuers, Edward would wear a different color for his jacket but still the same design. The only thing missing is his serpent cross logo at the back of his jacket. But if it’s in time for battle and to kick other older guy’s ass, Edward would transmute a brand new red jacket because he thinks he looks taller cool in red. That’s why Edward just carries one brown luggage as he and Alphonse travels around Ametris.

It makes me look stong! and kind of gets my blood going.

– Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist volume 21

Yes, Edward is his own personal designer. Unlike other hero’s with uniforms or like Death the Kid who is rich enough to have his own designer or tailor, Edward just magically use alchemy and transmutes his clothes whenever he needs one.

You’re growing your hair out? We have the same look. ‘He’s exactly like me when I was his age.’

– Van Hohenheim, Fullmetal Alchemist volume 11

As Edward’s dad predicted, they look exactly alike! After he lost the title of Fullmetal and his alchemical powers, Edward stopped wearing his childish red flashy jacket. Instead, he wore almost the same outfit as what his father wore except with a green tie. His hair is also tied the same way. As much as he despise his father because they left them, Edward cannot deny the fact that he will grow older looking exactly like his dad. There is also an OVA from the 2003 anime series where they showed an 100 years old Edward who looks like his dad, you can see it for yourself.

Serpent’s Cross

The symbol that Edward wears on the back of his coat and on Alphonse’s left shoulder is said to came from their teacher Izumi Curtis, from the first anime series. The symbol is called the serpent’s cross. The serpent’s cross is an old alchemical symbol which represents “fixing of the volatile,” or removing the volatile or poisonous element. It also symbolizes rebirth or healing. In the Christian bible, Moses caries a staff with a bronze serpent sculpted on it. It was his staff which God instructed him to raise to heal all the wounded Israelites. Another meaning of the serpents cross goes back from the ancient Greek mythology. Asclepius is the Greek god of healing, medicine, rejuvenations, and physicians. His symbol is a the serpent-entwined staff which is pretty much used as a logo in the study of medicine.

In my opinion, Edward uses his teacher’s logo to remind them about their past and their goal to find the philosopher’s stone. The only way to atone their sins is by bringing back what they lost.

Edward Elric’s automail

In Fullmetal Alchemist, people who lost parts of their body uses automail. Automail is an advanced prosthetic limb that uses different kinds of metal. It is advanced since the wearer’s nerves are connected with the automail. In Edward’s case, he lost his right arm and left leg, to be able to achieve their goal; he undergo an automail surgery. Edward usually break his automail after a battle especially his right arm, and so he constantly go to the Rockbells (a family of automail mechanics) to fix his automail.

Furthermore, Edward had an automail upgrade when he travel to the northern Briggs. Edward upgraded into a lighter automail which gave Edward the reason to become faster whenever he is in battle.