Aquinas defined Envy as “sorrow over the good of another.” Usually, that sorrow is felt because that other person has something you want but don’t have, be it wealth, love, happiness, or power. Envy drives you not to better yourself, but to stew with hatred for that other person. You want them to lose what they have even more than you want to gain it yourself.
So, Envy the homunculus is a shapeshifter. Envy is all about stealing what others have, so Envy can take everything about someone by literally stealing their identity. They can also spread the discord and pain that envious people desire; Envy murders the Elrics’ friend Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes by shapeshifting into his wife Gracia, stealing his happiness by adopting the very face of it.
Envy is often considered the ugliest of the seven sins, and I see why, because there is simply no upside to it. Pride, lust, gluttony and sloth can all feel pleasant, even if overindulging them will be harmful. Wrath can come from a good place (it’s good to be angry at injustice, for instance). Greed can also drive someone to succeed and claim what they want, but Envy does no such thing. Philosopher Bertrand Russell said:
“Not only does the envious person wish to inflict misfortune and do so whenever he can with impunity, but he is also himself rendered unhappy by envy. Instead of deriving pleasure from what he has, he derives pain from what others have.”
Most of the time, Envy prefers to look like an androgynous young person — but that, too, is a disguise. Their true form is an enormous reptilian monster with green skin. Green is the color most associated with Envy, linked together by Shakespeare describing jealousy as “the green-eyed monster” in “Othello.”
So, if Envy can look like anything they want, why do they choose to look like one of the humans they despise? Because, as Edward eventually realizes, Envy is (of course) jealous of humans and their ability to love and improve. Unable to stand being pitied, Envy’s last act is to end another suffering life — their own.
