No, Mustang. No It Does Not. Come On, I Know You’re Beyond Angry Right Now But You’re Still In Control

No, Mustang. No it does not. Come on, I know you’re beyond angry right now but you’re still in control enough to think out a coherent sentence. And also make an otherwise true (but obvious) point. Namely that ‘Envy’ refers to - shock! - enviousness! 

[He says this in the English dub version too by the way.]

Here’s a breakdown. This is the definition of jealousy.

We can clearly see jealousy is a state of post-enviousness. You’re not deprived of anything, there’s nothing that you lack per se, but you have a steadily consuming fear that you might be soon. Unfortunately, even the official definition confuses by throwing ‘envy’ into the explanation. Jealousy is suspiciousness, it’s fear, but you don’t desire anything. You’re afraid of losing something.

Here’s where things get even uglier. Jealousy can descend into a state of envy, or envy can be immediate, depending on the situation. Envy is the all-consuming rage and hatred of another for having something you lack. It is the desire to either take back by any means necessary what one believes to have been deprived of or taken from them, or make sure the other person/people do not have it.

That is what envy is. Mustang clearly did not do his research when he first heard the names of these creatures named after the infamous seven deadly sins that he certainly would have heard of before, and that he would get to know very well by the time he’d be finished with them. 

And then he spouts this gem. Honestly, the statement isn’t even needed at all. “Envy really is ugly" or something similar would suffice. But oh well, it’s fine as it is - except the glaring error that I can never reconcile with. 

Envy was never afraid of losing anything (aside from in this scene - its life, of course) to anybody. Even in this scene the word makes no sense because here Envy is merely afraid. Mustang is referring to its very nature, explaining the essence of its being, and botching it. Envy was never afraid of losing anything to anyone because it never had anything in the first place. The only thing that it ever had was its life, but its life only brought it pain and misery, and eventually it became such that even that meant nothing anymore, and Envy took that last thing away from itself. 

Envy refers to enviousness - the rage and the loathing of everything, everyone and itself for lacking what it desired but could not gain. The word might not roll off the tongue as easily as jealousy (perhaps one reason why it’s used in place of the correct term), but at least it’s bloody accurate. 

At least he was right about both being damn ugly.

/Mun out.

PS: Gah I’d love for somebody to do a parody dub and at the moment Mustang snarls “Envy means jealousy - that’s what your name means, right?” [Dub version], have Envy go “No it doesn’t you fucking idiot, what shit-ass college spat you out of [shoe crush] — FUCK!”