Alphonse Elric
Personality
Alphonse is a sweet boy who loves strays (usually feline), and is pure, kind (a bit naive), and gentle to those around him. These traits are considered as childish tendencies- the reason is said to be because he has a stunted emotional maturity (though, still sometimes more mature than his brother) from not growing physically at all. He basically stays the same age in the armor. Edward, feeling a tremendous guilt over affixing Al to something that won't grow or have senses, doesn't care what happens to himself and would without second thought give his life to give Al his body. Alphonse is completely against Edward dying or being separated from him, so Al usually stops his brother from going too far for him. Al is known to be one of his "tough-as-steel" older brother's few weaknesses; enemies often try to take advantage over it. Alphonse sometimes feels that he is a burden to Edward, but he has saved his brother's life more than once.
Abilities
Alphonse's level of alchemy skill is likely on par with his brother, Ed. After having his soul transmuted into a suit of armor, Al became a preternatural being , physically insusceptible to human limitations and near impregnable to blunt objects. The armor's stout physique grants Al exceptional physical strength, arguably equivalent to a person of equal stature. As such, he is able to lift and hurl objects many times his weight with considerable ease.
Like standard alchemists, Al could only transmute alchemy with the aid of a transmutation circle. Later through the story, Alphonse eventually develops the ability to perform alchemy without the use of any transmutation circles. In the manga, he obtains this ability after remembering his encounter with the Gate, the source of all alchemical knowledge, triggered when the Chimera Martel is killed by King Bradley while inside Alphonse's armor, that causes her blood to spatter on the rune inside his armor. In the anime, Alphonse gains this ability much later in the storyline, apparently after becoming the Philosopher's Stone and regaining full memory of his visit to the Gate. The concept of this is never fully ventured, due to his fear of the possible outcome effects of using the Stone's power. In the final episode of the series, he clearly uses alchemy without the need of any transmutation circle, in order to resurrect his dying brother (whether this being him becoming the Philosopher's Stone or his recovered memory from the Gate is left debatable). In Conqueror of Shambala, Al ( having no recollection of the previous occurrences taken place prior to the night he and Ed tried to resurrect their mother), loses the ability to freely transmute alchemy but gains the ability to transfer a portion or all of his soul into inanimate objects, though the effects are only temporary.
Like Edward, Al is also a very skilled hand-to-hand combatant, perhaps more so than his older brother, having never been beaten by Ed in their spars and scuffles.
