Fullmetal Alchemist: How Each of the Sins Dies in the Series

The Seven Deadly Sins in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is one of the anime’s most fascinating elements. They are all Homunculi, artificial lifeforms created by the first Homunculus simply known as Father. Each of these beings represents one of the deadly vices—Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth—serving as the main antagonists throughout the series.

While the Homunculi are powerful and have some of the best healing factors in anime history, they are not immortal. Over the course of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, each of Sins meet their end in a unique and oddly poetic way. Whether through combat, betrayal, or personal weakness, their deaths tie into the sin they embody, creating a deeper layer of meaning to their demise.

Lust

Dies by Being Repeatedly Incinerated by Roy Mustang

Lust meets her fiery end at the hands of none other than Roy Mustang. After severely wounding him and his colleague, Havoc, Lust moves on to battling Riza Hawkeye and Alphonse. However, before the fight can reach its conclusion, Mustang returns with a transmutation circle carved into his hand and a lighter for ignition. In a relentless assault, Mustang repeatedly incinerates Lust, burning through her regenerative ability until she is reduced to ash.

This defeat is ironic in that the sin of Lust was killed by Roy Mustang, who has been seen using flirtation as a strategy. Lust had been known to disguise herself to lure men in before she used her spears to tear them to shreds. Similarly, Roy Mustang would use filtration as a strategy, making Lust’s death at his hands all the more fitting.

Gluttony

The Homunculus That Eats Everything is Devoured by Pride’s Shadows

As the embodiment of insatiable hunger, Gluttony meets his end when Pride devours his Philosopher’s Stone. After both of them become injured, Pride ultimately decides to kill Gluttony in a decisive move to save himself and gain Gluttony’s power. Using his shadows, Pride Slits Gluttony in two, revealing his Philosopher’s Stone and proceeding to absorb it in order to acquire Gluttony’s keen sense of smell.

Gluttony’s death is a direct reflection of his sin. As a creature that is driven by an insatiable desire to consume, he eventually falls prey to a stronger foe with a greater desire, and he becomes consumed as a result. Gluttony’s end is a cruel twist and betrayal, underscoring both the hierarchy within the Homunculi and the destructive nature of unchecked voraciousness.

Sloth

Sloth Dies While Locked in Combat

Sloth is the Homunculus that embodies laziness and apathy, yet he meets his end by being overworked. In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Sloth’s job is to dig a tunnel underneath Amestris, but that task gets interrupted, and Sloth finds himself locked in battle. He fights against the Armstrong siblings and Izumi and Sig Curtis, and during the battle, he meets his end after being impaled by an earthy spike.

Sloth’s death is in stark contrast to the sin he embodies. Although he wants nothing more than to be lazy and not work, his downfall comes paired with excessive fighting and use of his power. With Sloth’s burly figure, his main mode of ridding himself of enemies was simply to trudge past or crush enemies with his impressive strength. Yet, in the end, he was relentlessly fighting for Father’s wishes. As he died, he complained about the effort it took to live, and the effort it took to die, highlighting the irony of his end.

Envy

Committed Suicide Out of Self-Loathing and Jealousy of Humans

Envy’s death in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is one of the most emotionally heart-wrenching moments in the anime. Even as a character guilty of many evils, after he is reduced to a powerless, tiny form, Envy has an emotional confrontation with his own difficult truths that is hard to watch. The fact that he is jealous of humans is torn from him and laid bare to the very humans he looks down upon. Unable to cope with the reality, Envy chooses to tear out and crush his own Philosopher’s Stone, committing suicide in front of Edward Elric and the others.

Envy’s suicide speaks volumes of his true nature as a sin. His jealousy of humans goes beyond a surface level of hatred and instead stems from his longing for emotional bonds and attachments. His death shows that unchecked envy can lead to self-destruction. Jealousy corrodes relationships and a person’s sense of identity if taken too far, leading to a road of darkness and devastation. In the end, Envy succumbs to his flawed view of the world and his inability to change his circumstances.

Pride

Was Humbled by Kimblee and Edward Before Reverting into a Weaker Form

Pride was the very first Homunculus after Father and the embodiment of arrogance. He is the only one of the seven sins who meet a fate other than death. During his final battle, Edward manages to overpower Pride and revert him to his true and weakest form—an infant. Due to Edward’s mercifulness, Pride is the only sin to survive the series, but his defeat aligns with the rest of his fellow sins.

Pride is stripped of his power, memories, and his pride, instead he is raised as a normal child under Mrs. Bradley as Selim Bradley. Pride’s fate is a poetic punishment for his sin, as someone who had looked down on humans and prided himself on his superiority, being reduced to a normal human child is the ultimate humiliation. His loss of memory and identity serves as an erasure of the arrogance that had defined him, and he is left to be raised by Mrs. Bradley as a happy human child.

Wrath

Died At Peace with a Smile on His Face

Wrath, who was later revealed as King Bradley, met his end during a battle against Scar. Despite his title, power, and the sin he was named after, Wrath’s final moments are surprisingly peaceful. After sustaining fatal injuries during combat, he dies at peace with a faint smile on his face, monologuing about philosophy. He calmly accepts his death at the hands of Scar, an Ishvallan who had himself become wrathful after Bradley’s experiments in Ishval, an irony in and of itself.

Wrath’s peaceful death reflects the complexity of the relationship with his sin. Though he embodies the might and fury of a warrior, Wrath had always been in control of his emotions, channeling them with precision and purpose. He met his end lying in the sun, with a small smile on his face signifying a sense of satisfaction. He had lived his life exactly how he wanted to and was unburdened by regret. Later, even Greed would remark on how peaceful his demise was.

Greed

Died By Doing the Most Selfless Thing by Sacrificing Himself for His Friends

Greed is the Homunculus that represents unending desire and the only Homunculus to die twice in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. His first death, he is returned to Father’s body before being expelled in Ling, creating the next version of Greed. His death is particularly significant because, in his final moments, he did the most selfless thing anyone can ever do—sacrificing himself for his friends. After reuniting with Father, Greed turns against him, turning his body into the weakest form of carbon, debilitating him from the inside out.

Greed’s selflessness projects the complexity of his character and serves as his true redemption in the anime. When he was first introduced, he desired power, wealth, and women, but at the end of his journey, he realized that he wanted something far more valuable—friendship and loyalty. Greed’s sacrifice and redemption demonstrate that the Sins in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood do not need to be defined by their vices alone and, given the right circumstances, could have grown beyond their initial purpose.