Dante (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Dante is the main antagonist of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime, first introduced in "Dante of the Deep Forest". As the master of the Homunculi and a formidable alchemist herself, Dante is responsible for setting in motion the events of the series and the challenges its protagonists must face along the way. Dante is voiced by Kazuko Sugiyama and Yumi Kakazu in the original Japanese version of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime; the English dubbing uses the voices of Cindee Mayfield and Monica Rial. Dante does not exist in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, as the creator and leader of the Homunculi in the manga is an enigmatic being simply called "Father".

Character history

Dante first appears as the former alchemy teacher of Izumi Curtis, who in turn taught the protagonists Edward and Alphonse Elric. Soon after her meeting with the Elrics, Dante fakes her death at the hands of the Homunculus Greed, who is in turn killed by Ed, although it is obvious to the viewer that her body was dead before Greed had arrived.

Dante, in Lyra's body, in "A Rotted Heart".

Much later in the series, it is revealed that Dante had transferred her soul to Lyra's younger body, thereby prolonging her life. Dante is actually around 400 years old and is able to escape death by continually transferring her soul to new, younger bodies with the aid of the Philosopher's Stone. Nearly 400 years ago, she was Hohenheim's lover, and together they lived for centuries using this technique. They even had a son; however, he died of mercury poisoning at a young age. Hohenheim's attempt to transmute him back to life created the Homunculus Envy. The first Philosopher's Stone that Dante and Hohenheim made used those condemned as witches and those dying of the plague as the required human sacrifice. In the course of performing this transmutation, Hohenheim was nearly killed; Dante saved him by instinctively attaching his soul to the body of another man; thus the pair discovered "eternal" life. In addition to this first Stone, Dante and Hohenheim were responsible for the destruction of at least two ancient cities: one located where the present capital of Amestris, Central, now stands, and a "fabled lost city in the East," each of which is said to have mysteriously disappeared overnight. The inhabitants of the cities were used as ingredients in the Stone, while the buildings were pulled underground with alchemy. However, some twenty years or so prior to the beginning of the anime, Hohenheim fell in love with Trisha Elric and left Dante for good.

Dante, 400 years before the series, in "A Rotted Heart".

Suddenly left to fend for herself, Dante resorted to using the Homunculi to do her bidding. She seeks out Homunculi from the moment they are created (when an alchemist tries to bring a dead person back to life) and feeds them Red Stones, thus strengthening them. She convinces the Homunculi that they will be better off as true humans, and makes them believe that she can transform them into true humans with the power of the Philosopher's Stone. Hence, the Homunculi become her minions in helping her to create the Stone. In reality, she only wants the Stone for herself in order to continue cheating death. Unwilling to risk creating a Philosopher's Stone herself, Dante seeks to manipulate someone else into unwittingly doing so for her. However, she reasons that only someone with nothing left to lose would go so far as to sacrifice the many human souls required to create a Philosopher's Stone. Thus she uses the Homunculi (especially Führer King Bradley, who is secretly the Homunculus Pride) to wage unceasing war, hoping to motivate a desperate alchemist to create a Philosopher's Stone, which the Homunculi would then steal for her. To this end, she orchestrates the slaughters in Ishbal and Lior, and later, to cover her tracks, she orders Pride to attack Drachma, a country to the north. In the latter campaign, she plans to use the chaos on the front lines as a cover for the planned assassinations of Roy Mustang and his subordinates by Envy. Due to her rapidly decaying body from overusage of the soul transfer, Dante had planned to transfer her body into Rose's next. This way, she hoped to gain control of Ed, hoping Rose's feelings for him would allow her to control him to make her the Philosopher's Stone (Since Hohenheim had abandoned her) After a final confrontation with Edward and Alphonse, she is last seen fighting off a crazed, mindless Gluttony while attempting to return above ground in the elevator to Pride's office. When the elevator reaches its final destination, neither she nor Gluttony is inside, heavily implying that the crazed homunculus ate her. Unlike Gluttony, Dante does not appear in Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa yet Lyra does (as her alternate Earth version), when Edward is having tea with Fritz Lang. She appears and bows to Fritz. Upon recognizing her Edward gawks at her making Lyra leave in a huff. Last Words (if she was devoured by Gluttony): You don't understand, do you [Gluttony]? Just hold on, we'll find you something to eat soon, okay?

Voice Actors ^[1]

Trivia

• "Dante of the Deep Forest" (「深い森のダンテ」, Fukai Mori no Dante^?) refers to the first tercet of Dante Alighieri'sThe Divine Comedy, where Dante found himself lost in a dark forest.^[2]

Notes and references