Olivier Milla Armstrong

Origin

Olivier Milla Armstrong

Olivier Milla 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

Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 17 JPN

The character of Olivier Milla Armstrong is a main character of the series Fullmetal Alchemist that was created by Hiromu Arakawa. The series first began serialization in Monthly Shonen Gangan on August 2001. 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.

Her first appearance was in Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 16 CH. 63 "The Promise Made for 520 Cenz", which was originally published on Sept. 12, 2006; and her first anime appearance was in the second anime based upon Arakawa's work Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Episode 32 "The Fuhrer's Son". Her character in the Japanese series is voiced by Yoko Soumi, and the U.S. dub produced by FUNimation is done by Stephanie Young .

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

She has long blond hair and full lips. She has a strong sense of loyalty and honor as a military leader. Though, her calm demeanor hides a violent fury if angered or betrayed. Olivier's combat style utilizes her heirloom military sword and the characteristic strength of the Armstrong line. She is the highest military ranked female character of the series.
 
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.

Major Story Arcs

The Northern Wall of Briggs

Olivier Milla Armstrong appears

Olivier was alerted to an fight going on outside Fort Briggs. The State Alchemist, Edward Elric, and arrived and presented her with a letter form her brother, Alex. She tore it up without reading. She didn't care about her brother's recommendations. She had Edward and his armor wearing brother, Alphonse, the grunt work while she made her own assessment of them.

Olivier with rocket launcher

Not soon after the Elrics arrival, the fort was attacked from within by a hulking humanoid that burst in from below. Both a a rocket launcher and Olivier's Briggs Tank couldn't kill it. Edward Elric seemed to know the creature and this made her more suspicious of the boys. She accused them of being Drachma spies. Though he refused to answer any of her questions, she could tell by the look in his eyes that there was more to this story. Though he did tell her that this monster named Sloth still had basic human anatomy. She quickly hatched a plan to use the tanks to push Sloth into the harsh Briggs cold and cover it with fuel to freeze him over quickly.

Olivier demands the truth from Edward Elric

With the creature subdued, the brothers were tied up and put in the brig, so that way they could claim they were forced to help them. Olivier then put together a search party to explore the tunnel Sloth had been digging and added the Elric brothers. Part way into this deep and distant tunnel, she ordered everyone to dismount, then for Edward Elric to tell him the complete truth of why he was there. He then told them the whole story of the Philosophers Stone, the nations ruler, King Bradley, was actually a Homunculus, and that Edward's childhood friend was being held hostage to ensure his cooperation. Using a map, the discovered that this tunnel was being used to create a transmutation circle that was linked to many of the greatest military slaughters in their nations history, and Briggs was next on the list.

Olivier kills Lieutenant General Raven

A scout arrived to tell Olivier that Lieutenant-General Raven had arrived to see her, and Edward asked if she would help con him. She met with Raven, who claimed Sloth was a weapon of Amestris; and she played like she would cooperate. Raven then tempted her to join him in their plot. Their meeting was interrupted when she was told that the part she sent to explore the tunnel had been killed. Raven was dismissive about finding any survivors and ordered her to seal the hole after Sloth had been put back inside. As the cement was being laid in place, Olivier sliced Raven with her down and knocked him into the wet cement to bury him alive. 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

Olivier vs. Alex

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. She returned to her family's estate in Central and demanded her father step down as head of the family and leave the country on vacation. Before he left, he had Olivier fight Alex to decide who would take over the family estate. Olivier won easily. The destruction to the mansion played right into her plan. Slowly as she sat at the table of the corrupt generals of Central, she had her men from Briggs filtered in under the guise of repairs and brought with them the pieces of a Briggs Tank to be built under the estate in secret for the coming battle in Central. One of the generals even showed her their artificial army of Mannequin Soldiers they had created.

The Promised Day

Olivier turns the table on the corrupt generals

On The Promised Day months later, the united forces of Briggs, soldiers from the East, and the men of Roy Mustang all attacked at once. Bradley was thought to have been killed in an assassination in the East. Before she could make her move to replace him, the true mastermind Father revealed himself along with Sloth. 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.

Olivier vs. Sloth

She fought the behemoth Sloth alone and could damaged his skin. She was saved by Alex to join the fight. Sloth just kept regenerating from it's injuries, 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. Though she had the opportunity to take the seat of King Bradley, she said she didn't want it. They found a secret entrance and took it deeper into Central. She later received word that Buccaneer had fallen in battle against King Bradley but had inflicted serious injuries on him with the help of a man from Xing, Fu.

Since she was injured, Olivier couldn't take part in the final fight with the evolved Father, but her soldiers in Central told her over the comms that she had trained them well enough to not need their commander to function. She then ordered Alex to go in her place and keep her informed of everything. 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, and 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.

Other Media

Anime

Though there were two anime series based on Fullemtal Alchemist, Olivier only appeared in the remake series titled in the U.S. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009). This series followed the original manga story far closer than it's predecessor. Some scenes were added to the anime that expanded on the original manga.