Olivier Mira Armstrong

Origin

Olivier Mira Armstrong is the eldest daughter of the prestigious Armstrong Family of Central City in Amestris. For generations, the family has been dedicated to the Amestris State Military and have developed combat forms of alchemy. At a young age, Olivier was given command of the treacherously dangerous region of Northern Briggs to guard against the invading horde of Drachma. She's a Major General who commands the very loyalty of her men, and takes incredible pride in their power, strength, and cunning. She's always on the lookout for any weapon she can use to further protect the nation and those under her command. In all her years in command of Fort Briggs, the wall has never been breached. This has earned her the nickname of "Northern Wall of Briggs". Those who try and deceive her are cut down with her sword.

Creation

Olivier Mira Armstrong (オリヴィエ・ミラ・アームストロング, Orivie Mira Āmusutorongu) is a supporting character of the Fullmetal Alchemist series that was created by Hiromu Arakawa. The series first began serialization in Enix's (later known as Square Enix after 2003) Monthly Shonen Gangan on August 2001. She would later appear during the The Northern Wall of Briggs Arc that began in Volume 16.

Her first appearance was in Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 16 CH. 63 "The Promise Made for 520 Cenz". The chapter was originally published on Sept. 12, 2006.

As with most of the military characters in the Fullmetal Alchemist series, Olivier's family name is derived from a real world military vehicle, vessel, or weapon. The name is based on the early WWII British boomer, Armstrong Whitworth Whitney (A.W.38 Whitney). Her given name of Olivier is actually a masculine name derived from French. In a series poll, Olivier took 8th place. This placed her as the third most popular female character in the FMA series.

Character Evolution

Olivier's cool demeanor, beauty, and fury earned her the nickname "Ice Queen" among her men in Fort Briggs. Though dead set on her ideals of survival of the fittest, she is remarkably open minded in the areas of racial relations. She cares little to nothing about a person's criminal past, race, and status of birth. All she asks of her men is to be loyal and strong.

When Hiromu Arakawa was asked if Oliver and Alex Louis Armstrong were really related, she illustrated two images. The first of all five of the Armstrong children by order of their birth, including two previously unseen sisters, Amue and Strongine. The other showing that both Oliver and Alex gave difficulty in buttoning up their uniforms due to the large size of their chests. These images are found in back of Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 17.

Major Story Arcs

The Northern Wall of Briggs

Drawn by a disturbance outside of the Fort Briggs wall, Olivier was introduced to Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric, Ed's younger brother. They presented her with a letter from Alex, which she promptly tore up without reading. Soon after their arrival, a humanoid-monster broke into the fort from underground, and the Elric brothers appeared to know a great deal about it. Edward refused to tell her details, but she could tell there was a reason behind his silence. Using one of the Briggs tanks, they forced Sloth out to the cold winter and doused it with their fuel. This froze the monster in place. She ordered the Elric brothers be thrown in the brig.

The brothers were brought along on the search of the tunnel Sloth had created, and she ended the journey part way. Down there, they were free to talk. They told Olivier all about how King Bradley, Fuhrer of Amestris, is a Homunculus and holding their friend hostage if they were to reveal the secrets they had..While examining a map they discovered the Homunculus plot was to for a transmutation circle around the country to create a Philosopher Stone, and the plot went back to the nation's founding.

Lieutenant-General Raven arrived concerning the issue of Sloth, and Olivier played along with Edward's plot to trick the conspiring general. She played the part of worrying about her own mortality to tempt her into joining them. However, when Raven later tried to dismiss the soldiers she had sent that went missing in the tunnel. Olivier killed Raven with her sword and dropped him, still alive, into the concrete filling hole. She then sent Buccaneer in with a rescue party via trap door Edward had made. Though she promised Buccaneer that she wold seal the entrance if they didn't return within a certain time. She broke the watch keeping the time, so they would have all they need to find the survivors and return.

Infiltration of Central Command

On Buccaneer's return, Officer Gartner arrived to replace Olivier since she was commanded to return to Central City to be questioned about the disappearance of Raven. When she met with King Bradley. She told him how Raven was a fool who slipped about the plot he was involved in, and she requested to take his place. To protect her family, she convinced her father to take the family and leave the country and make her the head of the family. Alex fought her for the title of head of the family, but he easily lost the fight, in which much of the estate was damaged.

The Promised Day

On the Promised Day, Bradley had been seemingly been killed in an assassination in the East. Olivier was ready to take advantage of the generals chaos, but Father, the mastermind of the plot, arrived to take command. When the generals finally realized that Olivier's Briggs soldiers were among the coup, they tried to kill her, but she defeated them and narrowly escaped being crushed to death by Sloth.

In her fight with Sloth, she was rescued from being crushed by Alex, Olivier's right arm was injured, and the Mannequin Soldiers had been released. They eventually killed off the monster for good with the help of Izumi Curtis and her husband Sig. While investigating the inner depths of the capital, she received word that Buccaneer had been killed by Bradley, after seriously wounding him with the help of a man from Xing, Foo.

Due to her injuries, she wasn't able to join the fight with Father, but she sent Alex as her representative. Olivier found the corpse of Bradley. Scar told her that Bradley previous injuries were key to his victory over Bradley. Once Father was finally defeated by Edward Elric, she had Scar join her men to rebuild portions of Ishval. She liked the idea of Roy Mustang knowing that Scar was still alive and on her side.

Powers & Abilities

Super Strength

One of the traits that appears to be standard in the Armstrong family is the power of great physical strength. She is the eldest child of the family and has the greatest fighting power. She can lift incredibly heavy objects with ease and easily overpowered her muscle bond younger brother, Alex in a fight.

Swordsmanship

Olivier is a masterful sword fighter and it is her weapon of choice. Her sword is an heirloom of the family that is finely crafted and etched on the blade.

Leadership

Olivier is a military genius and has the utmost respect of all under her command. She doesn't care about the secrets or past of other people. Only that they can fight and are strong. During her command over Fort Briggs, the area has never had any successful invasions. It was these victories that earned her the nickname "The Northern Wall of Briggs". She also designed and commissioned the construction of the nations first mobile tanks. This gave her the edge in ground combat.

Weapons & Equipment

Olivier's weapon of choice is an elegantly etched ceremonial sword that was passed down among her family.

Briggs Tank

On Olivier's command, she had her engineers at Fort Briggs develop the nation's first tanks. Since alchemy had been the nations primary form of military combat, they had put little research into military vehicles.

Other Media

Anime

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009)

The Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood animated series is the second anime adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's original manga. However, the series was only known in Japan as simply Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi). The "Brotherhood" subtitle was only added on for the Western audience to better differentiate it from the first 2003 series. FMA: Brotherhood was designed from its inception to be the true animated adaption of Arakawa's work. It was even set to end only a month after the final chapter of the manga was originally released in June 2010. It's produced by BONES and first began airing in April 5, 2009.

Olivier's first anime appearance was in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Episode 32 "The Fuhrer's Son", which aired on November 15, 2009. Her character in the Japanese series is voiced by Yoko Soumi, and the U.S. dub produced by FUNimation is done by Stephanie Young. In the FUNimation official subtitled edition, her name was written as Olivier Milla Armstrong.