Profile

WINRY ROCKBELL ( FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST )



CHARACTER
NAME: Winry Rockbell
SERIES: Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)

PERSONALITY:

History is heavily referenced throughout this section, be wary of spoilers.

From a young age, Winry Rockbell was a happy optimistic child with a loving family. Despite being an only child she learned what it was like to have siblings due to the closeness of her best friends, the Elric brothers. Growing up, she developed into a very emotional, strong-willed and emphatic person who puts all her heart and effort into the things she does and never hides her feelings.

When her parents left home to be doctors in Ishval during the war she absorbed herself in their books, learning every little thing she could about being a surgeon and their practices. It wasn't until news of their death that the young girl's undivided attention was turned to automail instead. She turned that same studious nature to learning about repairing, building and replacing automail - becoming quite talented at it even at the young age of ten. Her knowledge turned out to be a blessing when Edward was carried to their home by Alphonse, missing two limbs and bleeding profusely.

Her pleasant and mature demeanor wasn't all there was to her, though. When the military arrived - Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye -to speak wih the boys, she expressed concern that they would try to take them away from her, the same as the military had taken her parents. Winry did not hesitate in showing her distrust and dislike of the military, but still listened to Riza's side of things and accepted that in the end, it would be the boys' decision whether to go or not.

It takes very little for her to trade insults with Ed, mocking him for his obsession with alchemy in return for him making fun of her passion for automail and machinery. Despite how much Ed pokes fun of her, she takes it in stride, watching as he takes offense instead when she points out how reckless he is, and how throughout most of the series he still has yet to outgrow her. Despite their similiarities in nature, both short tempered, argumentative and stubborn, they are also well meaning - and Winry does display a notable amount of tact in comparison to the older Elric.

Winry is determined and quick to take on responsibility, automatically volunteering to craft Ed's new limbs when he requests automail from them to join the military. Even at such a young age she was able to craft the pair from scratch, her best models yet - and nothing got in the way of her improving and striving to improve Ed's limbs, balancing the risks of his lifestyle with the knowledge that he still had growing to do in order to make automail most suitable for his specific needs. She's also quick to tell Ed that she'll be there to support him, fix his automail and do whatever she needs to for as long as he needs her so he better get used to it.

This is also shown later in their lives several times over, another good example being when the Elrics arrive in Risembool because of their encounter with Scar. Winry is happy to see the boys until the reason for their return becomes evident - and her happiness is overshadowed by rage that Ed so carelessly destroyed her precious automatil. Even her rage doesn't compare to her concern though, despite her angry and violent reactions she worries over the state of their bodies and asks them to get into less danger, espcially when they refuse to tell her exactly what it is they're doing that causes them so much damage in the first place.

Once she gets to the task of making his new arm, Winry works hard for three days straight to make the limb perfect. Despite Ed trying it out in a few sparring matches it never goes noticed until the boys are already gone that a bolt is missing from his shoulder. Winry is overwhelmed with guilt, taking the blame for Ed's hospitalization on herself because if she had fixed the arm correctly he wouldn't have been at such a risk. She takes a trip out to Central to repair it properly, right away -no questions asked, and no yelling. Which in itself is a surprise to Edward during their call. However when he insists that it's his fault for not being careful enough with her new automail, Winry realizes that Ed never noticed the missing bolt and gladly seats him with the blame instead.

Wiry makes friends rather easily, which is evidenced when shortly after all of this goes down Maes Hughes drags her to his daughter's birthday party and allows her to spend the night at his place with his family. She confides in him right away about her concern for the boys, and how troubled she is by their lives, constantly lying to her, keeping secrets and winding up injured or damaged. More evidence of this comes up later when the Elrics take Winry to Rush Valley and she quickly befriends Paninya, and when she meets Rose.

She also doesn't hesitate jump up and defend someone when wronged, as shown when Al accuses Ed of creating him with artificial memories. Stubborn and straight forward, not only does she plead with Al to believe her, if not Ed - she grows angry when he refuses. After Ed leaves the room, upset by the news that his brother was harboring these feelings all this time, Winry attacks the younger Elric. Beating him with a wrench and crying over the lack of trust, screaming at him to go apologize for such an accusation - when Ed has gone through so much to help Al get his body back, and his worst fear as a child had been that his brother would hate him for what happened.

Once things calmed down and the boys were past the confrontation they made plans to find their Teacher in Dublith, agreeing to take Winry along with them due to her persistence on the matter, because it would bypass Rush valley - the automail capital of the area. While there she had plenty of opportunnity to brag about her automail skilss, showing off Ed's limbs and even stripping him down to near nudity to give a good view of both limbs. When Ed's watch goes missing, Winry catches the thief, so intrigued by the automail legs the girl is fashioned with that she demands to meet the person who crafted such work, seemingly unconcerned about the matter of her pickpocketing in the first place.

When given a few suggestions to improve Ed's automail, Winry pleads with Dominic to take her on as an apprentice - determined to be the best she can - but he refuses, proving himself even more stubborn than even she is. Paninya's theft of Ed's pocket watch shows Winry's determination in other ways too. She convinces Paninya to stop thieving and find an honest way to earn her way, and having her hand on Ed's watch means she used her tools to crack it open, curious about how it worked. Only to find the note he engraved in it, providing her with even more of a reason to try to change Dominic's mind. When the trio is stuck in the house with the family while Domminic's daughter in law goes into labor, Winry is the one to step up the plate to deliver the baby in the absence of a doctor. This speaks volumes of her personality in many areas, because it shows her take charge attitude, her unwillingness to back down when faced with a challenge, her ability to cope with new and strenuous situations and her talent for improvising - as she confesses that she has no real training in the matter and read books on it ages ago, so her knowledge was rusty at best.

Guilt ridden over what she witnessed, Winry apologizes to Ed for seeing inside his watch - despite that not having been her intention to peek in on, she could understand that it was a very private situation she'd invaded. When she approaches Dominic yet again about an apprenticeship, he's grateful for her help deliverying his grandchild and instead offers her the name of a man in town she could apprentice under. Although she didn't get exactly what she wanted out of the deal, Winry gracioiusly accepts.

After some time while Winry is improving her skills she takes another trip to Central with the Elrics - after they show up in Rush Valley for repairs - and after some devastating news that brings Al to the decision not to regain his human body, Ed surprises Winry by asking what she thinks they should do next. Surprised by this, but affected deeply by the conversation with Mrs. Hughes she starts with her typical response about them coming home and researching safely, before confessing that such a request would be selfish and that the boys need to do whatever is necessary to reach their goal. Further evidence that in this time she has also grown and matured from her original standpoint, seeing the situation from a different view after the death of Maes Hughes. Later, when Al explains that his death could come as suddenly as any human bodied person, Winry reaffirms her belief that Al needs to do everything in his power to regain his original body, growing violently angry when Ling - who was present for the conversation - argues otherwise.

Despite her maturity and strong will, the fact that she is still a teenager - and a confused one at that - becomes evident when she is faced with her parents' murderer. Having easy access to a dropped gun shortly after hearing that he was the one to kill them, Winry aims the weapon at Scar. However she's unable to pull the trigger, because she's just not the type of person to hurt or kill anyone.

When Edward explains about the death of her parents, Winry is disappointed that they didn't return safely to her and chose to stay behind despite the increasing danger - however she also speaks of pride in her parents for sticking to what they believed in and helping as many people as they could. She also expresses gratitude that Ed stopped her from firing at Scar, because otherwise she would not be able to go on living the same way, and the people that believe in her are the reason she can move on while still trying to come to terms with the loss - and truth behind that loss - of her parents.

Despite all of this, Winry proves to remain naive - when a call from the military to head North comes in, she gladly grabs her gear to fix Ed with a cold climate model of automail instead. Completely oblivious to the fact that the military is using her as a hostage to keep Edward on a very short leash, and the charming man that escorts her to the North is truly a cold blooded murderer, far worse than Scar would ever be. Guilt ridden for complicating the boy's situation, Winry changes Ed's automail for him and does her best to comply with what the Elrics as of her to be as little of a burden as possible - except when she stubbornly insists on tagging along, despite them ordering her to stay at headquarters for the time being.

Winry is shown to take after her parents when faced with Scar again, taking the selfless initiative to bandage Scar's wounds when faced with him once more if only becasue that's what her parents would have done in such a situation. Despite still being unable to forgive Scar for his actions she does show a level of trust in him by not only agreeing - but coming up with the plan - to allow him to take her hostage for show in order for everyone to escape from the military. The last notable evidence of her stubborness and bravery comes when they return to Risembool and Ed tells Winry to leave the country because something dangerous is soon to happen - and Winry refuses, because she doesn't believe in turning tail and running when they could possibly need her help with whatever is coming.

OTHER: Winry is a gearhead. A dedicated mechanic and obsessed with technology. Characters with artificial limbs and any close mechanical pets or devices beware.

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