The Truth About Scar’s Weakness

Scar refused to employ constructive alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and this is more important than it appears.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’s story is terrible, but it is not without hope. Forgiveness and finding the fortitude to move past sadness and sorrow to confront a better future are two of the film’s key positive themes. With their failed attempt at human transmutation, Edward and Alphonse, as well as Scar the Ishvalan monk, embodied this idea.

Scar lost almost everything in the terrible Ishval Civil War, including his adored elder brother. He obtained alchemical power from his brother’s study (including the transmutation symbols tattooed on his arms), but he only employed the destructive part of alchemy at first, refusing to employ the creative half. Scar’s personal arc was set in motion in a number of ways, the majority of which were symbolic.

Scar’s Alchemy and Its Symbolism

Scar’s decision to unleash only half of his alchemy’s power appears to be a tactical flaw at first. Edward Elric’s battle technique neatly blends martial arts and constructive alchemy, but Scar prefers the destructive side. He has the ability to break matter down at command, yet reshaping it is an affront to the Ishvalan god. Scar, as a monk, can’t bear the thought of tampering with his god’s magnificent creation. Scar will recognize and break down materials out of piety, but never reshape them.

This allows Scar to exact symbolic retribution on Amestris’ state alchemists, wielding their own power against them on his own terms. Around the same moment, Scar blew up Comanche the silver alchemist and killed Shou Tucker and his abomination chimera. Scar even utilized this power against the Elric brothers before turning on the homunculi with his imperfect alchemy after he realized they were his true adversaries (particularly Envy). Scar, on the other hand, was still battling with one hand tied behind his back, chained to the Ishvalan ways, and it almost cost him his life.

Scar utilized creative alchemy during the events of the Promised Day, pleading with his god to forgive him for his sin. Scar’s change of heart, in which he connected with anything other than his own Ishvalan ancestry, was brilliantly illustrated by this. He was also a hero, fighting to preserve the world from monsters and Father’s big plan, and he was willing to walk on a few godly toes to do so. Scar’s commitment to the Elric brothers was also reflected by that deed, as he was now employing alchemy in the same way they did. He, like Ed and Al, can reshape matter to suit his needs. They’re now more akin than they’ve ever been, and the hatred and enmity that had previously divided them has vanished.

Other Impacts Of Scar’s Alchemy Method

Scar’s inability to harness the creative side of alchemy was a shortcoming from a strategic standpoint. Scar, to his credit, was a formidable fighter who, even with this handicap, could defeat state alchemists, but he could only go so far. Scar’s combat style was discovered by Edward, Al, Roy Mustang, and the others. Ed and Al tracked Scar through a snowy mining village in the north, eventually cornering and arresting him. Scar could have gotten away with constructive alchemy, but he never did. Instead, he was chained to a stone wall, where he met with the Elrics and Winry Rockbell for an important meeting.

Scar was already having a change of heart, and this scene pushed him even further along that path. Scar had completely changed his mind and sided with Edward by the Promised Day, and he might not have done so if he hadn’t fled Ed through constructive alchemy.

Scar’s propensity for devastation came in handy during his tense battle with Wrath, the homunculus who wielded a sword. Wrath was depending on Scar’s lack of creative alchemy during the fight, so when Scar finally employed the constructive side of alchemy and impaled him on spikes, he was caught completely off guard.Wrath may have predicted Scar’s move if he had always fought that way, but Scar stunned everyone, including himself, with his action. Landing that attack was a turning point in the fight, and it inflicted enough damage on Wrath that Scar was able to deliver the finishing strike not long after. Scar was in a position to assist nurture improved Ishval-Amestris relations, promising a better future for everybody, having survived that fight with this fresh perspective in mind. If Wrath had predicted Scar’s constructive alchemy and slain him, none of this would have happened.