TV-Series
Description
Pereza, also known as Sloth, is a character from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, but the two anime adaptations present two completely different versions of her under the same name. Both versions are Homunculi, artificial beings created through alchemy and sustained by Philosopher's Stones, and both carry the Ouroboros mark associated with their kind, but their origins, appearances, personalities, abilities, and roles in the story differ substantially.
In the storyline of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which follows the original manga, Pereza is one of the seven Homunculi created by the primary antagonist Father, each of whom embodies one of the seven deadly sins; Pereza embodies sloth. In this version, he is a male Homunculus and the largest and physically strongest of the group. He has the appearance of a giant, muscular man with long, stringy black hair, sharp teeth, a single blank white eye with a scribbly outline, black straps across his chest, and chains around his wrists.
The defining trait of this version of Pereza is his intense apathy and his profound aversion to effort. He is slow, simple-minded, and disinterested in strategy or complex thought. His constant complaints center on how bothersome it is to exist and how much effort his tasks require, and his only genuine desires are sleep and immobility. In spite of this, he is obedient to Father and carries out his assignments, though he becomes frustrated and angry when others interfere with his work, because any disruption delays his ability to rest.
His primary role in the story is the most physically demanding job assigned to any of the Homunculi: excavating a gigantic transmutation circle beneath the entire country of Amestris. He performs this labor for roughly a century, using his enormous strength and endurance to carve out a vast network of tunnels that ordinary human workers could never have completed. Once the tunnel system is finished, Father's plan is ready to move forward, and Pereza takes on the role of bodyguard. He becomes involved in significant battles, most notably against Olivier and Alex Armstrong. His end comes when he is impaled on an earth spike transmuted by alchemy and his Philosopher's Stone is depleted, causing him to disintegrate. The outcome of his life carries a strong irony: the being who embodies laziness and resents every moment of exertion dies in combat immediately after finally finishing the enormous task that defined his existence.
His notable abilities come from the Philosopher's Stone within him, which grants him the regeneration and durability shared by all Homunculi, allowing wounds to heal as the souls inside the stone are consumed as fuel. His defining power is his immense physical strength, enough to tear through metal and stone and to crush ordinary humans with almost no effort. He is also capable of surprising speed when he chooses to move, although his lack of control over that speed and his general sluggishness make him a somewhat blunt instrument. His lack of cunning, his poor decision-making, and his apathy mean that he relies entirely on brute force rather than strategy. His character illustrates the theme of wasted potential, since he possesses extraordinary abilities that he uses only grudgingly and without any enthusiasm.
In terms of relationships, this version of Pereza has very little connection to the other Homunculi. He works largely in isolation, maintaining his tunnels under Father's authority, and he shows little interest in the broader conspiracy or in the fates of his fellow Homunculi. At times, Lust acts as a figure of command over him, and the Elric brothers encounter him during his work near Briggs, where he ignores them in favor of returning to his job. His development is minimal compared with the other Homunculi; his only meaningful change is a gradual withdrawal into his solitary tunnel work, and in his final moments he appears to accept death with a sense of relief, as it finally ends the exertion he always hated.
The 2003 anime presents an entirely different character with the same name. In this version, Pereza is a female Homunculus who was created unintentionally from Edward and Alphonse Elric's failed attempt to transmute their deceased mother, Trisha Elric, back to life. The deformed, contorted mass of flesh and bone produced by that failed human transmutation was later fed red stones by the antagonist Dante, allowing her body to reform into a normal human shape that ultimately gave her the appearance of the late Trisha Elric. She uses that resemblance against the Elric brothers throughout the series.
In this version, Pereza does not embody sloth in the sense of physical laziness. Instead, she embodies the other meaning of the sin, apathy and emotional emptiness. She rarely displays strong emotion, behaving in a calm, detached, and sometimes coldly condescending manner, and she is described as the most emotionally subdued of the Homunculi. Despite being among the youngest Homunculi, she is also one of the highest ranked and is shown giving orders even to Envy. Her unique ability is the power to transform her entire body into water, which she uses for transportation, infiltration, changing her physical appearance, and killing victims by drowning them. Like other Homunculi, she possesses regeneration fueled by the souls in her Philosopher's Stone, and her Ouroboros tattoo is located above the area where her heart would be.
Her motivations are more personal than those of her Brotherhood counterpart. She hopes that serving Dante will eventually lead to her being made human, which she believes is the ultimate goal of all Homunculi. At the same time, she is afflicted by memories belonging to Trisha, including memories of the life Trisha shared with her sons. She rejects any connection to Trisha and believes that killing Edward and Alphonse will prove to herself that she is not their mother. She also uses her watery body to immobilize Hohenheim, giving Dante the opportunity to banish him through the Gate.
Her role in the story involves operating under the alias Juliet Douglas, a name that belonged to a soldier whose actions helped set off the conflict in Ishval, and serving as the secretary of Führer King Bradley. In this role, she assists in setting a trap for Maes Hughes, accompanying him on the night of his death, and she is also involved in recruiting Wrath and hiding him within her watery body to help him escape the Elric brothers. She later reveals herself to Edward and Alphonse, horrifying them with her resemblance to their mother, and she repeatedly exploits their hesitation by mocking them from behind that familiar face. Her relationship with Wrath is one of the few meaningful connections she forms; she treats him as a kind of substitute for the sons she could never have, although the sincerity of that attachment remains ambiguous.
Her end comes during a confrontation with the Elric brothers in an abandoned warehouse. After she is immobilized by the human remains from which she was created, Edward uses alchemy to transmute her watery body into ethanol, and she slowly evaporates into the atmosphere. In her final moments, she speaks maternal words of advice to Edward and Alphonse, and the story leaves it uncertain whether her feelings toward them were genuine or simply another lie. Her death makes her the third Homunculus to die in the 2003 anime.
In the storyline of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which follows the original manga, Pereza is one of the seven Homunculi created by the primary antagonist Father, each of whom embodies one of the seven deadly sins; Pereza embodies sloth. In this version, he is a male Homunculus and the largest and physically strongest of the group. He has the appearance of a giant, muscular man with long, stringy black hair, sharp teeth, a single blank white eye with a scribbly outline, black straps across his chest, and chains around his wrists.
The defining trait of this version of Pereza is his intense apathy and his profound aversion to effort. He is slow, simple-minded, and disinterested in strategy or complex thought. His constant complaints center on how bothersome it is to exist and how much effort his tasks require, and his only genuine desires are sleep and immobility. In spite of this, he is obedient to Father and carries out his assignments, though he becomes frustrated and angry when others interfere with his work, because any disruption delays his ability to rest.
His primary role in the story is the most physically demanding job assigned to any of the Homunculi: excavating a gigantic transmutation circle beneath the entire country of Amestris. He performs this labor for roughly a century, using his enormous strength and endurance to carve out a vast network of tunnels that ordinary human workers could never have completed. Once the tunnel system is finished, Father's plan is ready to move forward, and Pereza takes on the role of bodyguard. He becomes involved in significant battles, most notably against Olivier and Alex Armstrong. His end comes when he is impaled on an earth spike transmuted by alchemy and his Philosopher's Stone is depleted, causing him to disintegrate. The outcome of his life carries a strong irony: the being who embodies laziness and resents every moment of exertion dies in combat immediately after finally finishing the enormous task that defined his existence.
His notable abilities come from the Philosopher's Stone within him, which grants him the regeneration and durability shared by all Homunculi, allowing wounds to heal as the souls inside the stone are consumed as fuel. His defining power is his immense physical strength, enough to tear through metal and stone and to crush ordinary humans with almost no effort. He is also capable of surprising speed when he chooses to move, although his lack of control over that speed and his general sluggishness make him a somewhat blunt instrument. His lack of cunning, his poor decision-making, and his apathy mean that he relies entirely on brute force rather than strategy. His character illustrates the theme of wasted potential, since he possesses extraordinary abilities that he uses only grudgingly and without any enthusiasm.
In terms of relationships, this version of Pereza has very little connection to the other Homunculi. He works largely in isolation, maintaining his tunnels under Father's authority, and he shows little interest in the broader conspiracy or in the fates of his fellow Homunculi. At times, Lust acts as a figure of command over him, and the Elric brothers encounter him during his work near Briggs, where he ignores them in favor of returning to his job. His development is minimal compared with the other Homunculi; his only meaningful change is a gradual withdrawal into his solitary tunnel work, and in his final moments he appears to accept death with a sense of relief, as it finally ends the exertion he always hated.
The 2003 anime presents an entirely different character with the same name. In this version, Pereza is a female Homunculus who was created unintentionally from Edward and Alphonse Elric's failed attempt to transmute their deceased mother, Trisha Elric, back to life. The deformed, contorted mass of flesh and bone produced by that failed human transmutation was later fed red stones by the antagonist Dante, allowing her body to reform into a normal human shape that ultimately gave her the appearance of the late Trisha Elric. She uses that resemblance against the Elric brothers throughout the series.
In this version, Pereza does not embody sloth in the sense of physical laziness. Instead, she embodies the other meaning of the sin, apathy and emotional emptiness. She rarely displays strong emotion, behaving in a calm, detached, and sometimes coldly condescending manner, and she is described as the most emotionally subdued of the Homunculi. Despite being among the youngest Homunculi, she is also one of the highest ranked and is shown giving orders even to Envy. Her unique ability is the power to transform her entire body into water, which she uses for transportation, infiltration, changing her physical appearance, and killing victims by drowning them. Like other Homunculi, she possesses regeneration fueled by the souls in her Philosopher's Stone, and her Ouroboros tattoo is located above the area where her heart would be.
Her motivations are more personal than those of her Brotherhood counterpart. She hopes that serving Dante will eventually lead to her being made human, which she believes is the ultimate goal of all Homunculi. At the same time, she is afflicted by memories belonging to Trisha, including memories of the life Trisha shared with her sons. She rejects any connection to Trisha and believes that killing Edward and Alphonse will prove to herself that she is not their mother. She also uses her watery body to immobilize Hohenheim, giving Dante the opportunity to banish him through the Gate.
Her role in the story involves operating under the alias Juliet Douglas, a name that belonged to a soldier whose actions helped set off the conflict in Ishval, and serving as the secretary of Führer King Bradley. In this role, she assists in setting a trap for Maes Hughes, accompanying him on the night of his death, and she is also involved in recruiting Wrath and hiding him within her watery body to help him escape the Elric brothers. She later reveals herself to Edward and Alphonse, horrifying them with her resemblance to their mother, and she repeatedly exploits their hesitation by mocking them from behind that familiar face. Her relationship with Wrath is one of the few meaningful connections she forms; she treats him as a kind of substitute for the sons she could never have, although the sincerity of that attachment remains ambiguous.
Her end comes during a confrontation with the Elric brothers in an abandoned warehouse. After she is immobilized by the human remains from which she was created, Edward uses alchemy to transmute her watery body into ethanol, and she slowly evaporates into the atmosphere. In her final moments, she speaks maternal words of advice to Edward and Alphonse, and the story leaves it uncertain whether her feelings toward them were genuine or simply another lie. Her death makes her the third Homunculus to die in the 2003 anime.