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The story of Scar from the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise.
Ishval Civil War[]
Scar defends his land.
As a young warrior monk living in the Kanda region of Ishval during the Ishval Civil War, the man who would later be known as "Scar" personally opposed the assimilation of his homeland into greater Amestris and found his distrust of the central government cemented by the military atrocities that erupted around him each day. His indignation reached a head when he discovered that his older brother had taken up the study of Amestris' craft of alchemy - a practice forbidden by the teachings of Ishvala. Though his brother tried to explain his research pursued the fusion of alchemy and alkahestry in an attempt to foster understandings between different groups of people and bring Ishval into the modern age, the young man grew ever angrier that his brother would waste time on such insubstantial endeavors while people were dying and hatred was soaking into their homeland - even more so when his older brother went so far as to tattoo the results of his research into his arms.
When the combat began escalating in the Kanda district, the young man and his family made preparations to evacuate the region. His brother, afraid that his discoveries would die with him if he were killed while fleeing, entrusted his notebook of discoveries to the young man in the hopes that a warrior monk would have a higher chance of survival than himself. Unfortunately, no sooner had he handed over the notes that the group came under attack by the Red Lotus Alchemist Solf J. Kimblee. Caught in one of Kimblee's signature explosions, the young man was mortally injured, bleeding profusely from a wound on his face and the loss of his right arm. In a hasty rescue attempt, his older brother used the power of the arrays he had engineered to transfer his own right arm to the young man's body at the cost of his own life.
The young man awoke sometime later in an emergency clinic set up and maintained by married doctors Urey and Sara Rockbell, who had applied emergency surgery and bandages to heal the man's injuries. Discovering that his entire family had died and his brother's telltale arm attached to him instead, the young man flew into a blind rage of anguish and slew the Rockbells with a dagger before fleeing into the desert, where the sight of Ishval's total devastation awaited him. From that moment, the young man swore to survive only for the sake of vengeance on the Amestrians and the State Alchemists who had taken everything from him.
Alchemist Killer[]
A few years after the war, the young man reemerges on his path of blood. Having discovered the power of the tattoo on his new right arm, he begins assassinating State Alchemists, slaying five in Central City and five more in different places around the country before making his way back east. Using a rudimentary description of his appearance, the military police profile him with the name "Scar" due to the large X-shaped scar across his forehead, however, having hidden his right arm and red eyes, he manages to avoid being identified as an Ishvalan refugee and a user of alchemy. Arriving in East City, Scar tracks down Basque Grand, the State Alchemist known as the "Iron-Blood Alchemist", when leaving a bar and kills him. Later Scar tracks down Shou Tucker, the State Alchemist known as the "Sewing-Life Alchemist" at his home and kills him. While there, he encounters Tucker's daughter, who had been transformed into a chimera by her father's alchemical hubris; taking pity on her mutilated form, he kills her as well and flees the scene.
The following day, as he wanders through East City, Scar coincidentally comes across the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric on the street and attacks. Fullmetal and his younger brother Alphonse attempt to flee, but Scar gives chase and eventually corners them, forcing them to fight. Attempting to disarm them, Scar discovers that Alphonse is actually a soul inside an empty suit of armor and that Fullmetal's right arm is automail, but adapts his attack accordingly and immobilizes both of them. As Scar moves in to deconstruct Fullmetal's body, young Edward asks him to spare Alphonse's life in exchange. Scar complies, but before he can end the boy's life, the Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang and the Strong Arm Alchemist Alex Louis Armstrong arrive with a cadre of soldiers and attempt to cordon him. Scar's initial assumption that encountering so many targets at once is a sign of good fortune is immediately dispelled when Strong Arm proves a formidable opponent and, after his glasses are knocked off and his red eyes exposed to the crowd, he collapses the street and escapes into the sewer system.
Sometime later, as he wanders beneath the city, Scar finds himself accosted by a mysterious duo - a large man and a beautiful woman - who seem inexplicably unaffected by his body destruction attacks. Seriously injured by their inhuman tenacity, Scar collapses the tunnel and escapes into the water before losing consciousness. He awakes in a slum for Ishvalan refugees outside of East City, having been rescued from the sewer by some of the ghetto's inhabitants, and remains there for several weeks while he recovers from his injuries and trains up his strength. Near the end of his recuperation, Scar is visited by his mentor from his days as a warrior monk in Ishval, who lectures him about the cycle of hatred that his senseless spree of violence is perpetuating, but they are interrupted by a pair of bounty hunters who have been alerted to the Scarred Man's location by Yoki - an ex-officer of the State Military now living in the slums as a beggar. Scar kills one of the bounty hunters and maims the other before setting out from the ghetto, telling his mentor that he cannot turn back from his path of blood. With Yoki - who is too afraid to stay in the slum after having betrayed the trust of the Ishvalans there - in tow, Scar heads for Central City to continue his vengeance.
Revelations in Central[]
Scar returns in Chapter 43 and begins his rampage again, killing three State Alchemists (including the Silver Alchemist, who mocks his inability to create things like a normal alchemist) with Yoki acting as his reluctant vassal. They encounter a young girl named May Chang who claims to be a traveler from the eastern nation of Xing and, as a practitioner of alkahestry (a native Xingese variant of alchemy), May recognizes the pattern on Scar's right arm as containing an alkahestic array known as the Dragon's Pulse.
When Scar hears multiple reports soon afterward of the Fullmetal Alchemist's presence in Central City, he sets out in search of his prey, finding Fullmetal and Flame together in an alley. While the Flame Alchemist flees, Edward and Alphonse engage Scar, who manages to keep abreast of their attacks, but is shocked to discover that not only has Alphonse learned the method of transmuting without a circle like his brother, but that Edward has learned to emulate Destruction Alchemy, gaining the ability to cancel out Scar's attacks. As a result, Scar's sleeve is destroyed, revealing his ornate tattoo to his enemies. The Elrics refute Scar's claim to righteous judgment, asking if the teachings of Ishvala would advocate his slaughter of the defenseless Nina Tucker back in East City, but Scar replies by asking if the alchemy they taught as the ultimate truth could have returned her to normal after it had made her into an abomination. Fullmetal, apparently having investigated some of Scar's past, then demands to know why Scar murdered the Rockbell doctors during the Ishval Civil War. Scar's shock at having his past dug up is compounded when he discovers that Winry Rockbell, the Rockbells' orphaned teenage daughter, has appeared behind him in the alley. Having overheard Edward's question, she collapses in hysterics and aims a pistol at the man she has just discovered to be her parents' murderer; the Elric brothers advise Winry not to shoot, but Scar countermands them, telling the girl that she has every right to take her vengeance on him but that he will count her as his enemy the moment she pulls the trigger. He declares to the three young Amestrians that the cycle of hatred will never end until one side is destroyed, but reminds them that it was their people who drew first blood.
Winry finds out who killed her parents.
Scar resumes the battle, but as he finds himself towering menacingly over Fullmetal, who has thrown himself in front of Winry, the Scarred Man remembers how his brother had tried to protect him from Solf J. Kimblee and momentarily freezes in shock over the parallels between then and now. Jolted back to the present by an attack by Alphonse, Scar flees the alley while the armor boy gives chase. They reach a nearby train yard to continue their fight just as Fullmetal catches up, but are interrupted when the mysterious large man from East City suddenly appears on the scene, followed immediately by a young Xingese man whom the Elrics call "Ling". Scar watches in amazement as Ling mutilates the fat man's body with a grenade only to have it slowly regenerate. As the three youngsters scramble to trap the man's swelling body in a strong metal cable, Scar begins to understand why his powers were useless against the creature overhears them refer to the creature as a Homunculus - an artificial human. Taken aback by the strangeness of the situation, Scar attempts to flee but is shot in the leg by Lt. Hawkeye. Just as the Elrics begin to take advantage of Scar's injuries in order to capture him, May arrives and creates a diversion so that her new friend can escape to safety.
While hiding from the military police, May heals Scar's battle wounds and reveals that she has lost her pet panda Xiao-Mei, her only "family" in Amestris. Feeling sympathetic, Scar helps her search for the errant pet after military presence dies down the next day and witnesses Alphonse (with Xiao-Mei on his shoulder) accompanying the large Homunculus man into an underground passage. He and May pursue them, but upon entering the passage, the young girl shows significant discomfort with her new surroundings, claiming to sense the presence of several inhuman things beneath their feet. As they breach the underground, Scar and May are attacked by a veritable horde of monstrous chimeras tasked with guarding the Homunculi's inner sanctum against intruders but are able to use their transmutation skills to hold their own against the unending horde as they make their way further downward. Eventually, the two of them breach the deepest level, where they stumble upon the Elrics and Ling battling with the Homunculi Gluttony and Envy and their mysterious Father. Taking advantage of the confusion of Scar's sudden appearance, Edward informs the alchemist killer that these Homunculi are the ones who purposely orchestrated the Ishval Civil War and that Envy himself fired the shot that began the fighting. Enraged by the truth, Scar aims his hand of vengeance at the new enemy, attacking Father with his Destruction Alchemy, but narrowly escapes death when he discovers that the strange old man is both immune to his deconstruction and able to perform powerful transmutations without circulating his energy or even moving at all.
Clearly, at a disadvantage, Scar attempts to flee, but with his fresh injuries hindering him and Envy and Gluttony out to kill him, his escape seems dubious. He manages to make it into the sewers where Alphonse Elric has been cornered holding an injured May but is met by the chimera horde from earlier. Alphonse demands that Scar take May and escape to the surface but Scar protests, stating that even if he wanted to run away from the people who most deserve his vengeful hand, his injuries will make escaping while protecting another entirely impossible. In a flash of inspiration, Scar deconstructs a nearby sewer pipe into free-floating ash, hydrogen, and oxygen before igniting them with a spark from Alphonse's steel helmet. The resulting explosion incapacitates Gluttony and gives Scar enough cover to slip away into the duct-work undetected. He remains in hiding for roughly a day, carefully navigating the maze of ducts spreading across the underground facility.
Marcoh begs for Scar to kill him, but Scar instead holds him captive.
While there, Scar encounters a man being held captive by the Homunculi and makes his appearance known. To his surprise, the man introduces himself as former State Alchemist Dr. Tim Marcoh and explains that he was largely involved with the massacre in Ishval and is being forced to cooperate with the Homunculi's greater plan while a small village is held hostage. Marcoh requests that Scar kill him, thereby freeing both the alchemist and the hostage town from the clutches of monsters, referring to Scar as a "god" compared to him. Scar is overcome with rage over Marcoh's revelations, but first demands that the doctor explains exactly what was going on with the eradication of his people.
Marcoh tells Scar everything he knows about the Ishval War, including the involvement of the State Alchemists as "Human Weapons" and the fact that the Philosopher's Stone that he himself had created was crafted using the bodies and souls of living Ishvalan war prisoners. When Marcoh's story ends, Scar flies into a rage at what he has heard but informs Marcoh that he will not be allowed to die so easily for his sins. He demands that the doctor reveal all his knowledge regarding the State Alchemist known as Solf J. Kimblee as well as aid him in deciphering the more confusing parts of his brother's research notes - citing his brother's assertion during the war that something about Amestrian alchemy did not make sense. Taking Marcoh's clothes and the body of a small guard chimera chained up nearby, Scar and Marcoh transmute a false corpse which the Ishvalan serial killer deconstructs to simulate one of his grisly murders while scrawling "Vengeance" on the wall in blood to make the scene more convincing. Then, using the duct system, the two escape to the surface where Scar regroups with Yoki and May.
May is surprised to learn that Marcoh had created the Philosopher's Stone - the key to immortality - but Scar informs the little girl that such an evil thing should never be desired. Despite the fact that Marcoh has joined their party, Scar calls the man his enemy and promptly unleashes his deconstruction alchemy on the doctor's face, disintegrating his epidermis, before asking May to use alkahestry to only staunch the bleeding rather than heal the wound - as it will be more convenient to have Marcoh's face disfigured so as to keep the Homunculi from recognizing him. He then declares that they will be heading to the northern region of the country - to the place where he had hidden his brother's research notes.
Answers in the North[]
Aware that they will be pursued by the enemy, Scar splits the quartet into two groups for their travel to the north - with May and Marcoh heading to East City by rail before heading to the Briggs mountain range while Scar heads directly north with a disguised Yoki by stowing away aboard freight trains. By the time Scar and Yoki arrive in North City, however, it is apparent that the Homunculi have sent someone after them in the hopes of recovering Dr. Marcoh. In Chapter 64, as they sneak onto a train headed for Briggs in the dead of night, Scar and Yoki find themselves accosted by a mysterious assailant. But when the moonlight flashes through their car as the freight train picks up speed, Scar recognizes his opponent as Solf J. Kimblee - the State Alchemist personally responsible for the death of his family. Flying into a rage, Scar assaults Kimblee, causing great damage to the train with his deconstruction alchemy before gaining the upper hand by pinning the Red Lotus Alchemist to the back of the adjacent car with a damaged pipe. Unfortunately, before Scar can claim his ultimate revenge, Kimblee uses his explosive brand of alchemy to detach the rearmost cars, separating himself from the Ishvalan killer as he continues to move onward with the engine. By Chapter 69, the four members of Scar's party (Scar, Yoki, May, Marcoh) hold up in a cabin in the snowy region of Briggs. Marcoh and May have discovered Scar's brother's journals, but the most important parts are written in undecipherable ancient Ishvalan writing. Marcoh hopes that Scar, as a warrior priest, can understand them to help their research. This theory is not tested as for the fact that immediately after Scar gets to the cabin with Yoki, he tells his party that they need to move to a new hiding spot.
Later, while Scar is looking for supplies, two central soldiers who he attacked before getting to the cabin, show up and retaliates, performing their capabilities as human chimeras. They are soon subdued by the Elric brothers, who pretend they don't recognize them as their supposed allies. Scar quickly attacks the brothers but falters as he notices Winry, which allows the brothers to trap him and his arm. Major Miles and his soldiers arrive and order back-up, while Winry questions Scar as to why he killed her parents. Scar claims he has no legitimate reason and that Winry has every right to take her revenge.
Winry, however, chooses to endure and not exact revenge on Scar and even bandages him, stating that it would be something her parents would do. Nevertheless, she still does not forgive his actions. Major Miles then laments his condemning of a fellow Ishvalan and Scar has a flashback of his master, preaching that even though what the Amestrian military has done to them is unforgivable, as humans, they must endure it so as to sever the bond of hatred and keep their own dignity so they won't be the same as vengeful beasts, and that his brother's theory about the flow of energy in the world, will grow positive if people build positive feelings and become able to hold negative feelings.
However, when Scar is about to be taken, Marcoh appears, begging them not to take him yet. Marcoh asks Briggs' authorities to let Scar go, at least for a while. Miles asks Scar to swear upon his Ishvalan blood to give himself over after his part is done, which Scar agrees, and Miles lets him go, although Ed strongly opposes it. When they find out that Kimblee is near, to cover all of them, Winry then proposes herself to being used as a "hostage" by Scar to provide cover for the Briggs army and Elric brothers and to secure herself from Central's grasp. Scar swears on his Ishvalan blood to protect her, and Ed begrudgingly accepts it. In the end, he goes together with Dr. Marcoh, May, Winry, and the two chimera soldiers who have chosen to defect from Kimblee's authority, guided by Yoki, through an unused mine tunnel under the city.
March Toward the Future[]
After the time lapse, Scar allies himself with Edward, Hohenheim, Mustang, Greed, Grumman, and Olivier Armstrong, the group leading the rebellion set to strike on the 'promised day'. In chapter 84, he shows incredible growth in his character by stating, although he is not here to save Amestris, he is here to change it and destroy the corruption, along with his tribe leader and most of the refugee village. He also gives the captured Envy to May, as he may hold the secret to immortality that she had been searching for. When she protests against this, he reminds her that her duty to her country and people come first. Consequently, Scar has quite possibly developed the most of all the characters over the course of the series, as he was initially a serial killer but now works towards the common good.
In chapter 102-103 Scar engages in a battle to the death with Wrath, who is still majorly wounded from his previous battle with Fu, Buccaneer, and Greed/Lin. Before the battle fully commences, Wrath asks what Scar's real name is, to which he states he doesn't have one, as he's abandoned his name long ago. Wrath is pleased with this, as Wrath himself does not have a name and the battle is between two nameless warriors.
By chapter 103, however, things look to be going Wrath's way as Scar is pinned to the ground, with Wrath about to deliver the finishing blow. However, spikes suddenly impale Wrath's sword arm, and when greeted with Wrath's look of shock (Wrath thought that Scar could only use deconstruction), Scar states that he had finally unlocked how to use reconstruction, courtesy of his brother's research notes.
By the next chapter, both Scar and Wrath are showed being engulfed in a black dome summoned by Father activating the transmutation circle. He and Wrath survive and continue their duel, with Scar eventually emerging victorious (though injured) after destroying Wrath's hands. Lan Fan, who had arrived earlier seeking revenge for her grandfather's death, helps the weakened Scar move to the transmutation circle. Scar then activates the Alkahestric Reverse Circle, giving Amestris its alchemy back.
After the circle is activated, Scar explains to Lan Fan how his brother had learned about alchemy and how alkahestry had intrigued him. Scar's brother had been mystified as to why the National Library contained no books on the subject and was forced to rely on caravans from Xing to learn about alkahestry. In his studies, he discovered to his horror that alchemy did not come from the energy of tectonic plate movement, but rather from a far more sinister source. Scar's brother also learned of the Nationwide Transmutation Circle and the barrier that had been placed on Amestrian alchemy, and since he knew the military would not allow him to interfere, he designed a reverse transmutation circle that was a combination of Amestrian alchemy and Xingese alkahestry. The circle would destroy the barrier and allow the alchemists to put an end to Father.
Eventually, Lan Fan and Scar meet up with Greed and, later, Olivier's group. Greed orders that all normal people and wounded individuals remain and Scar is one of those who stay behind. Olivier discovers the dead body of King Bradley and Scar tells her how he had been wounded by someone earlier, allowing him to emerge victoriously. Olivier then realizes that it was Buccaneer who had wounded Wrath. Scar is then seen collapsing on the floor due to his injuries.
He was, afterward, secretly rescued by Olivier Mira Armstrong. When he woke up, he commented that this was the second time he nearly died, but both times rescued by Amestrians. Olivier then told him that the reason she saved him was to work together with Miles to save the Ishvalan people and religion (and also to make Roy Mustang get into a bad position once he's found alive). He accepted this position and thought to himself that this was the reason he was still alive. When Olivier asked him what his real name was, he answered that since he's died twice he does not exist and thus doesn't need a name. He asked to be called whatever she liked.
His last appearance in the manga was is a photo of him with Miles several years later, where he has grown stubble and a ponytail; the both of them slowly working to bring Amestris and Ishval together.