LING YAO SPOILER!
LY
Twelfth prince of Xing, one of many succession candidates for the emperor's throne, arrived in Amestris looking for the Philosopher's Stone to secure his position at home. Cheerful, cunning, perpetually hungry, harder to read than he presents. His friendship with Ed develops with the natural ease of two people who are more similar than either will admit. Brotherhood gives Ling an arc that becomes one of the series' most interesting examinations of identity and coexistence, built around a situation that would destroy most characters and what it says about Ling that it does not destroy him.
LING THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
BROTHERHOOD COMBAT LEDGER //
Open page →Central Command Gates · Tactical Bradley Victory (Fu & Buccaneer Deaths)
King Bradley single-handedly cut through an Amestrian tank and military infantry to reclaim Central Command, engaging Ling Yao (possessing Greed's Ultimate Shield) and the bodyguard Fu in high-speed swordplay.
The Breakdown
Fu attempted a suicide bombing with dynamite, which Bradley sliced away instantly. Captain Buccaneer and Fu managed to mortally wound Bradley at the cost of their lives, creating the single opening Scar needed later.
FATHER & HOMUNCULI //
Open page →Greed — The Ultimate Shield
SPOILER! Carbon-based armor · Ling turns one Homunculus into two people Open →Greed hardens the carbon in his body into an extremely durable shield. Edward's first fight with him is important because Ed realizes the defense can be altered through alchemy rather than simply battered through.
When Father later places Greed into Ling Yao, the result does not erase Ling. Two wills occupy the same body, argue, cooperate and eventually change one another.
When Father later places Greed into Ling Yao, the result does not erase Ling. Two wills occupy the same body, argue, cooperate and eventually change one another.
Why it matters
Greed becomes the Homunculus who most clearly disproves Father's assumptions about desire. What he finally wants is not possessions. It is the people he spent the series pretending were possessions.
STORY & ARC GUIDE //
Open page →Episode 26 onward
Father places Greed into Ling Yao expecting a useful new vessel. Ling remains present.
The two personalities initially fight for ownership and gradually become something far stranger: partners capable of lending one another the body.
The two personalities initially fight for ownership and gradually become something far stranger: partners capable of lending one another the body.
Why it matters
Father treats people and souls as interchangeable material. Greed/Ling becomes one of the clearest examples of two identities refusing to be reduced to material.
THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE //
Open page →Dublith → Ling
When Father reabsorbs the first Greed, the Homunculus is returned to the Philosopher's Stone system from which Father created him.
Later Father places Greed into Ling Yao, expecting the Stone and Homunculus to overwrite the human vessel. Ling remains.
Later Father places Greed into Ling Yao, expecting the Stone and Homunculus to overwrite the human vessel. Ling remains.
Why it matters
The series keeps refusing the idea that a soul is only interchangeable energy. Greed and Ling become two distinct people sharing one body despite Father's attempt to treat both as components.
THE PROMISED DAY //
Open page →Episode 63
Greed spends his existence insisting that he wants everything: money, power, immortality, possessions.
When he turns on Father for the final time, the answer becomes much smaller. What he wanted was the people who chose to stand with him.
When he turns on Father for the final time, the answer becomes much smaller. What he wanted was the people who chose to stand with him.
Why it matters
Father expelled Greed as a flaw. Greed dies having learned something Father never does: desire can connect a person to other people instead of reducing them to things.
XING & ALKAHESTRY //
Open page →Ling presents himself as carefree, hungry and opportunistic, but his political instincts are serious. He believes a ruler exists because people follow him, which means abandoning those people destroys the point of ruling.
That belief is exactly what brings him into conflict and eventual cooperation with Greed.
That belief is exactly what brings him into conflict and eventual cooperation with Greed.
Why it matters
Ling's idea of leadership becomes one of Brotherhood's cleanest counters to Father's idea of power.
Father pours Greed into Ling, expecting the human identity to be overwritten. Ling instead remains present and begins arguing with the Homunculus sharing his body.
Greed gains a host strong enough to contain him; Ling gains the regenerative and defensive abilities attached to Greed's Stone.
Greed gains a host strong enough to contain him; Ling gains the regenerative and defensive abilities attached to Greed's Stone.
What changed
Possession becomes partnership because neither personality is willing to vanish.
Greed repeatedly describes friends and followers as things he owns. Ling understands the language immediately because he also defines himself through the people who choose to stand with him.
By the end, Greed recognizes that what he actually wanted was connection, not property.
By the end, Greed recognizes that what he actually wanted was connection, not property.
Why it matters
Ling does not redeem Greed with a speech. Their shared body forces Greed to live beside a human version of the desire he has been misnaming.
