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Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the highest-rated anime on IMDb and the most loved shonen anime of all time. It is also the anime one of the anime that proved the prowess of Hiromu Arakawa as a manga author worldwide. Fullmetal Alchemist follows the story of the Elric brothers Edward and Alphonse going on an adventure of a lifetime searching for the philosopher's stone to reverse the effects of a failed attempt to revive their mother using alchemy.
They face several hurdles on their adventure and one of the most dangerous of them all is the Ishvalan warrior monk known as Scar. Scar is a powerful alchemist who kills the state alchemists as a part of his brand of lethal justice. The alchemy of destruction is what makes Scar a powerful warrior and a force to reckon with. As fascinating and destructive as his ability is, he did not possess it in his early life.
The Ishvalans
The Ishvalan race or the Ishvalans are the indigenous people who resided/reside in Ishval which would eventually come to be a region in the southeastern part of greater Amestris. The Ishvalans follow a religion that revolves around the worshiping of the Earth God, Ishvala, and the belief that Ishvala is the only true god and creator of all and everything. After the merging of Ishval into Amestris, they became normalized Amestrian citizens via law.
They were free to practice their religion and also participate in national ventures like the military. However, things got heated up because of their radical cultural differences from the rest of the Amestrian population. This was the result of the Ishvalans having radical ideology about the use of Alchemy. The Ishvalans condemn and prohibit the use of alchemy because, to them, it is equivalent to challenging the creator of all, Ishvala by giving new forms to his creations through alchemy and questioning his creations.
This scenario of ideological and religious differences resulted in the Ishvalan Civil War which started after an Ishvalan child was accidentally killed by an Amestrian military soldier. However, This soldier was revealed to be Envy, a homunculus in disguise, in the later part of the series. The Ishvalan Civil War resulted in the mass killing of Ishvalans and Amestrian chief King Bradley used state alchemists like Roy Mustang and philosopher's stone to win the war. Afterward the war the surviving Ishvalans scattered across the country as refugees. All of this led to Scar making it his mission to eliminate all the state alchemists and the military administration of Amestris to deliver justice and avenge his fellow Ishvalans.
Hand of Destruction
Scar uses a different kind of alchemy, it is the opposite of the traditional use of alchemy which is creation. His alchemy tends to destroy anything and anyone that comes his way. Scar is quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat as he was a former warrior monk. His already significant strength, stamina, speed, and remarkable reflexes combined with his alchemy power that channels through his right hand make him a formidable foe of the Amestrian alchemists and military. His right hand has an arcane transmutation tattoo that grants him the ability to use alchemy but not in the traditional sense. His alchemy ability only puts to work the first two steps of the cyclical flow of transmutation which is comprehension and deconstruction. By this method, he constructs the organs and minds of his enemies in a fight to kill them easily. Hence, he only destroys things and people that pose a threat to his ideals and ambitions.
Scar's right hand with the transmutation tattoo did not always belong to him, instead, it originally belonged to his older brother. His older brother was an Ishvalan scholar who studied and researched Alkahestry which is a different form of alchemy. During the Ishvalan Civil War, Scar's older brother cut his hand and transmuted it onto Scar to save his life after the latter was fatally hurt by Kimblee. Scar's older brother died saving him, but he also gave Scar the gift of alchemy. As a result of the deaths of his older brother and fellow Ishvalans, Scar was filled with rage and hatred toward Kimblee and the Amestrian military and chose to walk the path of revenge.
Hand of Creation
Scar studies and deciphers his older brother's research notes about Alkahestry and learned the reconstruction step of the transmutation flow of alchemy. He understood and respected his older brother's goals related to Alkahestry as the latter considered it as something that would change the fate of the future of the Ishvalans and lead them to a path of development and betterment. Scar used his new learned alchemy skills that allowed him to perform full transmutations to help the Elric brothers defeat the father before the promised day. Hence, his story comes full circle.