Greed

Greed

Greed is a Homunclas that called "Ultimate Shield."

Appearnce

Thus he now has the appearance of his host, though his eyes become red, an Ouroboros mark appears on his left hand and his facial features are altered, looking older and more akin to that of his previous aspect. When Greed is in control of Ling's body his hair cover his right eye, while when Ling takes it back, his hair cover his left eye. Also contrary to his host,

Plot

Greed returns to the story as Father exudes his son's Philosopher's Stone core and inserts it directly into the body of Ling Yao to create a second Human-based Homunculus and fill the empty space left by the first Greed's defection and Lust's death.

Inside the Xingese Prince's body, Greed speaks with Ling, who accepts the Homunculus' power of his own free will, but not before expressing surprise at realizing that the prince's avarice could parallel his own. This second Greed maintains all the same personality and powers as the first (his Ouroboros tattoo is even in the same spot), but appears to have none of the memories, not recognizing Envy, Gluttony or the Elric Brothers. As such, he becomes a faithful servant of his Father as the first Greed was presumed to have been initially and refers to all actions prior to his rebirth as having been done by "the other Greed". But as a result of being accepted willingly into a body with such a strong will, it seems that both the consciousness of Greed and Ling exist in the same body, with Ling being able to take control for short periods of time as made apparent when Edward wakes up Ling's consciousness by mentioning Lan Fan and when Ling tells Akua to shut up for insulting humans. It would appear that when the right eye is covered by Ling's hair, Greed is in control and when the left eye is covered, Ling is in control. Though Greed respects Ling for having the avarice to accept his power and the will to take over his body, he is very annoyed by the fact that Edward keeps calling him "Ling".Greed begins to have mental flashes back to his first life and his comrades at Devil's Nest and begins trembling uncontrollably. Ling berates the Homunculus from inside for killing a comrade and believing that the old Greed's memories and feelings could be purified. He informs Greed that things that have become part of a soul can never be truly washed clean or forgotten. Holding Bido's body in his arms, Greed has a complete mental breakdown and then rushes to the Führer's mansion to confront Akua.

Greed reappears to confront the returned Wrath at the entryway to Central Command and engages him in combat, claiming that his avarice now desires Wrath's life.

Powers

Being a member of the homunculi, Greed (in both incarnations) possess the standard abilities of his race: rapid regeneration, enhanced strength and speed, as well as near immortality. As for his homunculus power unique to himself, he has the ability to re-arrange the configuration of carbon atoms of his body, allowing him to convert his skin into Graphene. He usually uses this ability to partially strengthen the density of selected parts of his body during battle, but can extend the effect to its entirety. In this form, he resembles a black-skinned demon with a malevolent facial visage. As Greed has control over the configuration of his body's carbon atoms, the substances that he can convert his skin into can vary based on his intentions. He can choose to convert his skin into the indestructible substance, or he can turn his skin into a weak graphite. The latter was seen in his fight against Father shortly before he died. As for the second Greed, while sharing the same powers, these advantages are further enhanced by Ling's abilities such as the knowledge of Wrath's sword skills. Though he prefers to use his ultimate shield to form claws covering up to his shoulders (thereby summoning makeshift weapons at will), leaving much of his body vulnerable to attack (only using his shield on other areas to protect them from attack temporarily, as seen when Wrath attempts to slice Greed's head off with his sword only to have it broken in two by Greed's shield), in Chapter 100 of the manga, Ling requested more power from Greed and finally assumed a fully armored, presumably invincible form. Furthermore, being fused with Ling's body enables the two to conveniently switch during battle (though he dislikes having to do this, as he fears that Ling will simply "run off with this body"), allowing them to compensate each other's weaknesses with the other's strength (i.e. as Greed, he can summon the Ultimate Shield, while Ling can sense the presence of people and differentiate them from homunculi).

Trivia

• In the 2003 Anime, when Greed goes into his full Armor state, his mouth doesn't move (unless he laughs). However in Brotherhood, when he uses his armor, his mouth does move like in the manga.
• Taking into consideration Greed's particular skills and charismatic persona, it is likely that he served as an instigator agent alongside Lust and Envy before defecting.
• Greed's body being shared with Ling could possibly be a reference to Canto XXV of The Inferno. In this Canto the thieves are subjected to the constant loss of their bodies to the lizards that inhabit the seventh Bolgia. In life they took the substance of others, transforming it into their own, so in Hell their very bodies are constantly being taken from them and they are left to steal back a human form from some other sinner.
• The reason Greed appears to be loyal to his friends, unlike any of the other Homunculi, is suggested by Ling to just be another extent of his greed—possessing all would also imply "friends". He later reveals that he never really wanted all of the world, but to have friends like humans do.
• Interestingly, as the second Greed, when his hair is over his right eye Greed's soul is in control, when it's over the left side, Ling is in control. However, this is only mostly present in the manga, as the 2009 anime shows the bangs in mostly random positions, regardless of who's in control. Instead, they are differentiated by their voice actors.
  • In a slight way, Greed is one of the few characters, alongside both Selim Bradley and Hohenheim, to have entirely new Japanese and English Voice Actors from 2003 to 2009; although Greed's original English voice actor did reprise his role initially.
• In the latest fan poll Greed came in the 12th place, making him the second most popular of the Homunculi, Envy being the first. The second Greed came in 13th place while Ling himself came in 9th.
• The original Greed and Lust are the only Homunculi who are not in a back spine volume shot.
• Although Wrath and the second Greed are created in similar ways (injecting a Philosopher's Stone into a human body, a human based homunculus), only Greed is able to regenerate. This is most likely because Bradley "fought" against the Stone, draining it to only one soul, while Ling offered his body to the Stone without resistance.
• Due to his death and rebirth, and the fall of his Homunculi siblings, Greed was both the first Homunculus to die and the second to last one to die permanently (Father being the last).
• Second Greed is commonly called by fans, "LinGreed," due to the fact that Ling's name ends with the letter G and Greed's starts with G. Greedling or Greelin are also common nicknames for him. Edward has also mentioned to calling the new Greed "Grin", but it never appeared to have caught on (possibly due to "lame puns" regarding Greed's smirks.)
• It is interesting to note that the Ouroboros between the first and second Greed differentiate in the 2009 anime. Ling's Ouroboros is actually facing the opposite way as the first Greed. The first Greed's Ouroboros had its top by his fingers, but the second Greed wears his with the top by his wrist. There are a few animation mistakes where it changes around (by his fingers), but for the most part, it's opposite the first Greed. It is unknown why this was decided, because the mark is the same on both Greeds in the manga.
• In the English Dub of Brotherhood, by episode 28, the new Greed (Greelin) is voiced by Troy Baker, because Chris Patton quit voice acting before the dubbing process of the anime was finished.
• Unlike his fellow Homunculi, Greed surprisingly does not harbor any sociopathic feeling towards humans.
• According to the English audio commentary in Conqueror of Shamballa, Troy Baker originally auditioned for the role of Greed in the 2003 anime but was rejected after 35 seconds because he couldn't laugh right for the part. Ironically, Baker did go on to play the second Greed in Brotherhood.
• Greed's motive for kidnapping Al does not sensibly transition to the 2003 anime. Although both Greeds sought immortality by being bonded to an inanimate object, it's heavily stressed that Homunculi in the anime have no souls, thus making a spirit binding impossible.
• Coincidentally, in all versions of the series, Greed is the first Homunculus to "die" (though he was reborn in the manga and 2009 anime).
• His favorite phrase is "There's no such thing as 'no such thing'!'".
• Apparently Greed does not believe in telling lies, as Ling stated when Greed lied to Ling in order to prevent him from being dragged into Father along with Greed himself.
• The way Greed transfers to a new body in the manga and Brotherhood is similar to Hazama/Yuuki Terumi of Blazblue, where the latter like Greed "seemingly perished" and later possess a vessel to be reborn, only Terumi took time compared to Greed, and grew permanently in control for the vessel was made specifically for him. Both have also been voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura in Japanese.
  • Interestingly, Terumi's durability is similar to Greed's title as the Ultimate Shield, most Blazblue fighters often have a hard time trying to defeat him, though Terumi's weakness was not as obivious as Greed's