Leo

Leo is protective, angry and distrustful, particularly where Amestrians are concerned. His childhood was shaped by military violence, leaving him with understandable hostility toward the people and institutions associated with Ishbal's destruction.

His strongest attachment is to Rick. Leo assumes responsibility for his younger brother and reacts intensely when Rick is placed in danger. He can also be stubborn in his judgments, especially when he believes someone has abandoned the Ishbalan community or violated its religious principles.

Despite that anger, Leo is capable of reconsidering beliefs when confronted with evidence that he has misunderstood someone. His emotional development repeatedly involves recognizing that choices he interpreted as betrayal may have been more complicated than they appeared.

Leo possesses no alchemical or supernatural abilities. He is an ordinary Ishbalan teenager who has survived as a refugee following the destruction of his homeland.

His principal strengths are resilience and his determination to protect Rick. He has lived under dangerous conditions and understands the risks faced by Ishbalans traveling through Amestris, but he is not portrayed as a trained warrior comparable to Scar.

Leo and Rick encounter the Elric brothers while living among Ishbalan refugees. Leo initially carries painful memories of the raid that separated them from their mother, believing that she abandoned her children while fleeing Amestrian soldiers.

After Rick is kidnapped by Wilson's mercenaries, Scar and Alphonse cooperate to rescue him. The brothers subsequently discover medicine inside their mother's locket. They learn that their mother suffered from deteriorating eyesight and likely failed to recognize where her sons were during the military attack rather than deliberately abandoning them. Leo breaks down after realizing that he had misjudged her actions.

Later, Leo struggles with Scar's increasingly controversial actions among the Ishbalans. When Scar pursues the creation of a Philosopher's Stone, Leo views him as an exile who has abandoned Ishbalan principles. Edward encourages him to recognize that people must make their own choices rather than be reduced to a single judgment.

Rick is Leo's younger brother and the person he most consistently tries to protect. Their shared survival after the Ishbalan War forms the center of Leo's life.

Leo and Rick's Mother is initially remembered by Leo as having abandoned her sons. The discovery of her eye medicine reveals that worsening blindness explains her actions during the military raid, forcing Leo to reconsider years of resentment.

Scar is an important figure within the refugee community. Leo respects him but later struggles with choices that appear to violate Ishbalan religious principles.

Edward Elric initially represents the Amestrian military system Leo distrusts. Their interactions gradually force Leo to judge Edward as an individual rather than solely as a State Alchemist.

Alphonse Elric helps Scar rescue Rick and becomes another Amestrian whom Leo has reason to view differently from the soldiers who destroyed Ishbal.