*stares* I love you. We must be sisters seperated at birth, I swear. I shall now poke at your theories, because they make me HAPPY.
Spoiler warning for the uninitiated.
RE Greed: I agree that the skull is more powerful than the rest of the body; I suspect there's no exact formula of the difference, but when Greed faces his full skeleton (minus skull) he is not as weakened as when he faced his skull in the array; but he functions fairly well around it the rest of the time, although this is always when he's with his bitches, who are very damn protective of him. I suspect the reason for the skull's power is that the head is the seat of consciousness; it is more "Greed" than the rest of the body, rather like how Al's torso is more "Al" than say his head.
Kimbley is a damn perceptive boy. He might not know what's in that bag, but he knows Greed is afraid of it enough to keep it safe. I daren't poke at the reasons behind his knowing smirk when it crumbles, though; perhaps he saw it was a skull and when it crumbled he figured Greed was kaput.
More on the skeleton situation: the skull was in fine condition until Greed's death, whereupon it seemed to give in to all the aging it had escaped. His skeleton, however, is fairly well decayed. This again points to your theory of the skull having more power, although we probably can't be sure why. (I think, however, that the skull would not decay, and thus the homunculus would not be killed by the passing of time. I'm a bit thrown by Greed's remark that he is nearly immortal, however - because then he goes and is surprised at the method used to kill him. How did he expect to die?)
I think you're right about Greed's ignorance of his own nature. The lie about smashing the skull, the non-interest in his own shield beyond impressing the hell out of people - he really is the most human of the homunculi, simply out of disinterest in his "monster" side. He's used to being human and continues to (mostly) act that way.
RE: Kimbley: I wonder if he has photographic memory? Probably not, he probably absorbs the meaning and the details and forgets the source, which lets him slep things together in unconventional connections. I can picture him as a small child, reading alchemy books by candlelight. But that leads into, "where did he get the books?" XD I have long thought he's descended from Hoho-papa, although my pet theory is that Envy was a young man of his time (and he did live to his twenties at least, and judging by his dress and attitudes was probably upper-class [discussion for another day] and probably slept around a bit) and got an illegitimate child, from whom Kimbley is descended. Doesn't quite mesh with the alchemical books being present, but whatever. XD "You're descended from alchemists, son, now stand up tall and shoot the rabid dog."
He liked theoretical work until he started blowing things up in Ishbal and realized that hands-on is so much better.
no subject
Spoiler warning for the uninitiated.
RE Greed:
I agree that the skull is more powerful than the rest of the body; I suspect there's no exact formula of the difference, but when Greed faces his full skeleton (minus skull) he is not as weakened as when he faced his skull in the array; but he functions fairly well around it the rest of the time, although this is always when he's with his bitches, who are very damn protective of him. I suspect the reason for the skull's power is that the head is the seat of consciousness; it is more "Greed" than the rest of the body, rather like how Al's torso is more "Al" than say his head.
Kimbley is a damn perceptive boy. He might not know what's in that bag, but he knows Greed is afraid of it enough to keep it safe. I daren't poke at the reasons behind his knowing smirk when it crumbles, though; perhaps he saw it was a skull and when it crumbled he figured Greed was kaput.
More on the skeleton situation: the skull was in fine condition until Greed's death, whereupon it seemed to give in to all the aging it had escaped. His skeleton, however, is fairly well decayed. This again points to your theory of the skull having more power, although we probably can't be sure why. (I think, however, that the skull would not decay, and thus the homunculus would not be killed by the passing of time. I'm a bit thrown by Greed's remark that he is nearly immortal, however - because then he goes and is surprised at the method used to kill him. How did he expect to die?)
I think you're right about Greed's ignorance of his own nature. The lie about smashing the skull, the non-interest in his own shield beyond impressing the hell out of people - he really is the most human of the homunculi, simply out of disinterest in his "monster" side. He's used to being human and continues to (mostly) act that way.
RE: Kimbley:
I wonder if he has photographic memory? Probably not, he probably absorbs the meaning and the details and forgets the source, which lets him slep things together in unconventional connections. I can picture him as a small child, reading alchemy books by candlelight. But that leads into, "where did he get the books?" XD I have long thought he's descended from Hoho-papa, although my pet theory is that Envy was a young man of his time (and he did live to his twenties at least, and judging by his dress and attitudes was probably upper-class [discussion for another day] and probably slept around a bit) and got an illegitimate child, from whom Kimbley is descended. Doesn't quite mesh with the alchemical books being present, but whatever. XD "You're descended from alchemists, son, now stand up tall and shoot the rabid dog."
He liked theoretical work until he started blowing things up in Ishbal and realized that hands-on is so much better.
XD I bet he did! Ah, that wants to be written.