Alex Louis Armstrong
Alex Louis Armstrong is the Strong Arm Alchemist of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, a major whose enormous muscles and sparkling speeches hide a gentle, honourable heart. He is voiced by Kenji Utsumi in Japanese and Christopher Sabat in English.
About Alex Louis Armstrong
Alex Louis Armstrong is the Strong Arm Alchemist, a major whose enormous muscles, sparkling poses and booming speeches hide a gentle, deeply honourable heart. His alchemy has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations, a line he announces at every opportunity. Scarred by what he saw in the Ishval war, Armstrong fights to protect others, and his tears for friend and stranger alike are as famous as his strength.
Appearance
Armstrong is a giant of a man, bald except for one small curl of blond hair on his forehead, with a magnificent moustache, blue eyes and a physique so exaggerated it seems carved from marble, pink sparkles literally appear around him when he poses. He wears the blue military uniform stretched to its limits, and in combat strips to the waist to display the Armstrong physique, fighting with ornate metal gauntlets engraved with transmutation circles. His face crumples into tears at the slightest emotional provocation, which happens constantly.
Personality
Armstrong is theatre and sincerity in equal measure: booming, formal, endlessly announcing the techniques 'passed down the Armstrong line for generations', and genuinely moved by courage, beauty and suffering wherever he finds them. He is no fool, he is a shrewd officer and a terrifying fighter, but he leads with his heart. The Ishval war left its mark on him: ordered to do things he could not accept, he broke, and he has carried the shame of it since. His answer has been to protect people loudly and completely, with everything his enormous strength allows.
Background & Story
Alex Louis Armstrong comes from the Armstrong family, one of Amestris's great military houses, and is a major and State Alchemist, the Strong Arm Alchemist, under Eastern and later Central command. His alchemy, combining transmutation with hand-to-hand combat through his gauntlets, has been the family style for generations. He served in the Ishval civil war, where what he was ordered to do, and the moment he could not do it, still shapes the officer he became. In peacetime he is one of the Elric brothers' most reliable protectors in uniform, a man whose loyalty belongs to people, not to the chain of command.
Powers & Abilities
- Strong Arm Alchemy: Armstrong's gauntlets carry transmutation circles, letting him reshape stone and earth with every punch, raising statues, spikes and walls mid-fight, in the style passed down the Armstrong line for generations.
- Superhuman Strength: His physique is beyond ordinary human limits: he hurls boulders, shatters stone with his fists and overpowers soldiers and chimeras alike.
Key Relationships
- Olivier Mira Armstrong: His older sister, the Ice Queen of Briggs. He adores and fears her in roughly equal measure, and their ideas of strength could not differ more.
- Edward Elric: A young colleague he protects with embarrassing enthusiasm, hugging the brothers half to death at every reunion.
- Roy Mustang: A fellow officer in the loose network of soldiers who quietly doubt the orders coming from the top of Amestris.
Quick Answers
Why does Armstrong sparkle?
The pink sparkles are a visual gag marking his pride and emotion, Armstrong poses, flexes and sparkles whenever he is moved, which is often.
Who voices Alex Louis Armstrong?
Armstrong is voiced by Kenji Utsumi in Japanese and by Christopher Sabat in the English dub.
How does Armstrong's alchemy work?
His metal gauntlets are engraved with transmutation circles, so every punch can transmute stone and earth, the Armstrong family's combat alchemy, passed down for generations.
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