Fans of Fullmetal Alchemist all have their favorite characters, and for the most part, we all really love Edward and Al respectively. But even though we love these characters, we've got to admit that every single character in the series has their flaws. That's what makes them so human.
In Edward's case, what makes him human is his temper. Ed is not always the kindest character in the series. In fact, there are times when he's a downright jerk. And it's those times we want to talk about now. So we've gone ahead and listed out ten of the times that Edward was the biggest jerk ever. Or you know, an average jerk struggling with the horrible situation he's in. Your pick.
10 10. The Way He Talks to Rose
We get it, Ed one hundred percent saw himself in the willful blindness that Rose allowed herself to fall into. Once upon a time he too held a desperate hope that he'd get back the ones he loved. And he hates seeing that reminder in Rose.
But the truth of the matter is, Ed leaned towards the 'tough love' side of the scale in regards to handling Rose. He was blunt and forceful, and while we understood why he behaved this way, it probably did more harm than good. It certainly didn't incline Rose towards listening to him anyway. And we can only imagine that his words hurt her.
9 9. Pushing His Beliefs in Front of Others
While we're on the subject though, Ed does have a tendency of putting his own beliefs and opinions before those of others. That whole scene in Reole is proof of that, when you think about it. He was so determined to break open the truth, to force people to see what was really happening, that he never once asked himself if he was in the right to do so.
Realistically, it probably would have been for the best if the townspeople saw how they were being taken advantage of. But we're also not entirely certain that Ed had the right to make that decision for them. And his aggressive nature in this manner certainly didn't help things.
8 8. His Disregard For His Own Well-Being
This may seem like an odd item to include on this list but bear with us. During the series, we've seen Ed hit a point where he constantly disregarded his own well-being. That's horrible in and of itself, but it gets worse.
Because there are people who care about Ed, and not only that but people who depend on him. By throwing himself into danger he hurts friends such as Winry. And since he's potentially the only one who could ever fix Al, he puts all of that at risk as well. While we sympathize with the emotional state he is in at all of these points, we can also see all of the pain he caused along the way.
7 7. Resolving Conflict Through Fighting
How many times have we seen Ed pick a fight or scream at somebody when they said or did something he didn't like? Go ahead and call Ed a pipsqueak and you'll know exactly what we mean by that statement.
The truth of the matter is that Ed's first reaction to solving almost any problem is to start a fight, be it somebody calling him mean names or somebody with strongly differing opinions from his own. He's a kid in many ways, so this makes sense to a certain extent. But it's also so much more than that, as fans are well aware.
6 6. Upsetting Winry
We touched upon this a little bit earlier, but Ed has a tendency to upset the people in his life. Be it through his rash nature or the way he throws himself into danger. But with Winry, that's not the only way he can upset her.
Failing to care for the automail that Winry so carefully built for him is an excellent way of upsetting her. And not only does it worry her, but it makes Winry feel like all of her hard work and effort go unappreciated by Ed. A false assumption, but one we can certainly understand.
5 5. Avoiding Hughes
We get it, Hughes and his baby craziness can get pretty annoying at times. But avoiding one's coworkers isn't always the best way to handle a problem. Especially when Hughes actually does care about Ed quite a lot.
And that whole situation is made so much worse for what happens to Hughes in the end. There's little doubt that Ed beats himself up more for what happened than we ever could.
4 4. Jumping To Conclusions
Another bad habit of Ed's is his tendency to jump to conclusions. He'll make a judgment about a situation or person and run off of that and that alone. You can see that whole scenario plain as day when you watch his interactions with people such as Scar.
This also applies to when Ed is in battle or in a dangerous situation. For example, Reole; he assumed that the people of the town would have his back in the fight, and he was very dangerously wrong.
3 3. Ditching Armstrong
Armstrong is quite possibly one of the most entertaining characters of the series, thanks to his paradoxical nature. He's simultaneously the strongest character around, and one of the most emotional. And let's not forget his baby-face.
We get why Ed was put off by the whole Armstrong being assigned as his guard thing, we really do. But it was done with his (and Al's best interest). Armstrong was devoted to the job and caring for those two odd boys, so it made Ed a bit of a jerk for constantly wanting and trying to ditch him. We know it had to make Armstrong's job harder nd it didn't make Ed any safer either.
2 2. Ignoring Izumi's Advice and Training
Ed and Al's first alchemy teacher was Izumi Curtis. And there's a reason why she was so upset with them, the first time we saw them interact in the series. She took her time to take those two orphans in and teach them everything she knew. But she also made a point of teaching them the rules of alchemy, and the things they should never do.
No, she didn't teach them the truth behind why she knew one should never try to bring back the dead. But she shouldn't have had to. So yeah, we get why she was so mad at the boys for going against everything she trained them for, even if they were so young when they did it.
1 1. His Fight With Al
Perhaps one of the hardest scenes to bear in the series is the time that Ed and Al are fighting. Al believes that he isn't anything more than a creation of Ed, while Ed is terrified that Al will hate him for what he did. They're both in the wrong, but they were both also justified for the way they were feeling.
Ed is the older brother in this relationship, and sitting down and talking it out would have saved them both so much pain and agony. So while Ed never meant to hurt Al like this, we're going to include it on the list. Because it is arguably some of the worst pain caused in the series. Well, it's high up there at least.