#thewriter; meta

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Me: Why is anyone scared of Roy? He’s not even that tall, and he’s a complete dork. He turns to mush when he gets compliments, and he writes love letters back to his admirer. Never mind that he’s such a fucking Dad. Me: Seriously. He’s so soft. How is he scary? Roy when hunting down Envy: “Come out now. Otherwise I’m gonna ignite your bone marrow.” Me, who has done way too much research into what burns feel like, how hot a fire has to be to cremate someone including their bones (and how long), and knows that second-degree burns alone are excruciatingly painful:

That’s a line only in Brotherhood. In the manga, he says he’ll light the entire building on fire (which is still terrifying, honestly). For some reason, though, this just hits differently. It’s a precise attack. It’s literally getting under someone’s skin. Not only that, but it’s complete torture. Getting your bone marrow extracted hurts like hell. This? What Roy’s describing? That’s even worse.

Want to know why I say Roy’s top sin is wrath, even though he pushes it down so fucking far? How he tortures Envy and enjoys it is why. What he did with Lust was more merciful. He wasn’t trying to torture her, and he didn’t enjoy the kill.

God, I can just see the glint in Kimblee’s eyes when he hears/sees Roy like this. I hate it and also love it.

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headcanon/meta - weight

Me, just sitting here thinking about Roy in chapter 39 of the manga/episode 19 of FMAB, and how thin he looks.

Like, we talk about how muscular he is, and that he clearly stays in shape, but there’s a problem: the reason they’re so well defined, especially in the anime, is due to a lack of nutrition. Earlier in chapter 34/episode 16, Major Armstrong tells Roy he looks slim and asks if he’s lost weight. Roy, who just woke up from a ten minute nap in the records room and could clearly use more sleep, confirms that he has. And, in typical Roy Mustang fashion, he changes the subject (albeit to a similarly pressing one regarding Armstrong’s injuries).

Roy’s physical state probably started declining before he officially transferred to Central, but it started deteriorating faster when he got there. He’s clearly not sleeping enough, and the fact that he’s lost weight since Armstrong saw him last (which was in East City with Scar) shows he’s not eating enough either. This deterioration undoubtedly continues after Lab 3 and him losing his team. Hell, he discharges himself from the hospital after two days only to make his injury worse by running around with Gluttony.

This is where his self-sacrificing trait really becomes a negative. He’ll always put others before himself to the point that he’ll neglect to take care of his physical needs. This also points to how hyper-focused he can get on tasks. Those two things mixing, plus the grief and anger he’s not dealing with, are a recipe for disaster.

TLDR: please remember to feed your Roy three times a day and ensure he stays hydrated. Note: coffee is not and never was a meal.

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[ooc] I had a revelation earlier today that I shared with Nat, and then Lil and Kira, that made me sad. Warning: it is about Nina.

When he arrived at the Tucker estate after Ed and Al, he was furious. He doesn't show it in canon, but it got under his skin in a bad way. I knew one reason why, and it was because Elicia, the kid he considers his niece, was just a year or two younger than Nina. Looking at Nina, he asks himself, "Who would do something like this to their own daughter?"

And then it hit me: he knows exactly who would do that, and his name is Berthold Hawkeye.

We don't see Roy talk to Shou, but I can imagine it was an incredibly tense conversation. One of those "this is why people are scared of the Flame Alchemist" sort of talks with a low voice teetering on fury. What happened with Nina will likely haunt and bother him for years to come (just like it will with the Elrics). It happened under his watch, and he probably believes he could have prevented it.

So yeah. That's my awful thought of the day. Maybe I'll write up an official post when I get home.

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short meta - Vanessa and Madeline

In the manga, only two of Chris’s employees are named: Vanessa (chapter 62) and Madeline (chapter 63).

Vanessa is seen here:

Madeline is seen here:

That scene still makes me laugh.

I’ll be adding Madeline to the list of Roy’s sisters later since I honestly didn’t remember her until I was looking through the manga for something. Vanessa is one I have more personal headcanons for, and I’ll probably talk more about her later. Since we don’t know much of anything about Chris, her bar, or her employees, I’m kinda winging it as I go.

And so can you! (If you want)

If any of you have ideas for Madeline, feel free to chime in! All of Roy’s sisters are NPCs on this blog, and there are probably more than the ones I have listed thus far (see this post). So, if you feel like making one up, do it!

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How other characters describe Flame Alchemy

“I completed my research years ago. My technique is the greatest and most powerful form of alchemy... But in the wrong hands, it would bring naught but ill fortune.” - Berthold Hawkeye, Chapter 58

“... the secret to flame alchemy that’s led good men to madness.” - Riza Hawkeye, Chapter 95

“Out of all the State Alchemists, your skills are the most troublesome.” - Pride, Chapter 102

I dunno. I just find how others describe it fascinating. The middle one didn’t make it into the anime, but, to me, it’s incredibly powerful. Because, honestly, can you imagine what Berthold Hawkeye might have been like before he dove into his research? Riza probably knew. He might have been a decent human being before flame alchemy.

Hi. I’m here. Friday is my hell day for work, so responses may or may not be quick.

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Post-Promised Day Roy is still a mess of a human being, and, what it looks like depends on the verse, how he gets his eyesight back, and what he’s doing.

AND OOPS THIS GOT LONG, SO UNDER A READMORE IT GOES.

Like, Roy is the king of putting on a brave face to hide how absolutely fucking terrified he is. When he lost his eyesight, it was probably the most frightened he’s ever been in his life. In Brotherhood, you can hear it in his voice. In the manga, what does he do as soon as he realizes that his eyes aren’t adjusting to his surroundings, and he can’t see? He’s on the ground. He’s not moving. He’s gritting his teeth.

And he makes no attempt to use his alchemy. Not until he has Riza at his side. This is for a good reason, though, since flame alchemy requires precision when there are other parties present. Then, there’s the fact that Father disabled Amestrian alchemy.

I still wonder if Roy could’ve used his, though. That’s a theory for another time.

But again, even though he’s just lost his sight, and had a sword go through each hand, he’s still doing what he can to help. He’s helping Ed and Al come to the same conclusion that he did: that Pride sacrificed something by forcing him through the Gate. He’s telling the others how many people live in Amestris so they have an idea of how powerful Father’s Philosopher’s Stone is.

And he still deems himself useless, the thing he hates being the most. It’s why that moment between him and Riza is so dang powerful. She knows this about him. Not only that, but she is the only one outside of Roy himself who even has an idea of how flame alchemy works. He trusts her with his life.

I’ll never be over that, okay.

When the battle ends, Roy is by himself. He’s out of the way. As soon as Dr. Knox starts talking to him, though, he puts on that face. He’s grinning because of the irony that he lost his sight. When Dr. Knox tells him that he’ll be discharged because of his lack of eyesight, he’s still determined to do what he can. We don’t know if he had a plan prepared since Marcoh showed up right then, but, honestly? I don’t think he did.

He makes it look like he’s okay with giving Grumman the presidency, but, internally, I doubt he is. This is what he dedicated his life to since the end of the Ishval war. In such a short amount of time, he’s forced to give up that dream. He has to find another way. Obviously, he’s still determined to move forward, still do what he can to help others, still improve Amestris. He’s one stubborn fucker who ignores his own pain for the sake of others. In this case, he’s putting his emotional pain aside. He’s scared, probably devastated, angry, and so many other things.

I’m not a big fan of Marcoh just giving him the Philosopher’s Stone. It’s the one plot point in the story that I disagree with. Roy, with how principled he made himself, wouldn’t want to use it for himself at all. He wouldn’t want the sacrifice of others, especially Ishvalans who no longer have any agency or autonomy, be used for himself. That’s one reason why Chrissy restoring his eyesight, along with Havoc’s spine, is so incredibly important and valuable to me. That verse is just... I have so many feelings.

For Post-Promised Day Roy, I want to explore more possibilities, aka him either finding a way to restore his sight without the stone, or learning to live with being blind. I’d have to do more research into eye surgery and its history to see if that would be possible. Amestris’s medical development is a bit hard to pin down in this regard.

So, say if a certain roach lived through the Promised Day. Roy wouldn’t even try to stop him from taking that magic cough drop. He doesn’t want it for himself. Besides, he doesn’t feel like he could safely use his alchemy at all, much less on Kimblee. Which... I’d have to wonder how Kimblee would react to hearing Roy say, “I can’t use my alchemy anymore.” Or, the worse one: “I’m useless.”

I also wonder if he’d actually admit that last one to Kimblee. He’s shown weakness around Kimblee before, but this is a different level.

Sure, he could keep relying on Riza to direct him, but he wouldn’t want to do that for her. It’s limiting what she can do, and, once she’s fully healed, she can do a lot.

I have no idea where I was going with this. Basically: gimme all those Post-Promised Day threads.

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@deathleads​ asked: was there a specific point that Roy experienced when he knew he wanted a certain partner? A moment of clarity maybe, that he knew he loved / wanted them?

Ooooh, this is a fun question. With Roy, I feel like there’s always more than one point. I mention in our threads with Chrissy that he keeps falling in love with her. But, there were definitely points where he just knew.

Originally, I was gonna try and answer this for multiple partners, but I got rambly, so we’re focusing on Chrissy and how much I love this ship.

The first moment he knew he wanted to stay with her was in her lab after she showed her true self. He was hurt and angry that she lied to him, but he willingly put everything he felt aside to make sure she was okay. Without hesitation. It was then that he realized that black and white thinking didn’t work with either of them. Not only that, but she trusted him, and that means more to him than anything.

The second moment came when he got to see her with his restored sight for the first time. I’d even say leading up to that was just a big “I love you” from him. He was genuinely terrified during that entire time, but he was more than willing to put his life in her hands---literally. In his mind, she needed to be the one who gave him his sight back, no one else. I’m just... I’m not over that, okay. Seeing her with the sight she gave back to him showed him how brilliant of an alchemist she is, and he wanted to be part of her life. Right then and there. He wanted to be at her side while she changed the world.

The third, and I have no idea where this falls timeline wise, is when they’re talking about children. Like, she got him to stop and think about what he wanted instead of just what he plans to do for Amestris. And goodness, she’s so patient with him, and I think he’s realizing that. The fact that she’s willing to walk him through what he’s feeling? He sees that. He remembers when she did this for him when he had his grief attack. God, he sees how much she cares when doing this, and he’s just, “I want and need her in my life.”

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me skimming through the FMA manga to find something: “Hmm, it’s around this part somewhere I think...” me: stumbles into Hughes essentially adopting Winry me: “I love this man so much.”

And then you have this interaction that just gets me every time:

Hughes: “It’s not that they didn’t want to tell you so much as they didn’t think there was a need to tell you. They must have assumed you would understand without them having to explain everything.” Winry: “... There are somethings that I need to be told in order for me to understand.” Hughes: “That’s just the way it is. Men express themselves through their actions more than their words. They would rather shoulder their pain themselves than cause their loved ones to worry. That’s why they won’t say anything about it. When they decide to tell you their troubles, that’s when they’ll need you to be there for them. Isn’t that enough?”

Hughes is a guy who plays things close to the chest, and he’s an excellent actor. He’s got everyone fooled into thinking he’s just some goofball who talks about his family too much. In reality, he’s usually the smartest guy in the room. This interaction with Winry, though, really showcases how kind and caring Hughes really is. How empathetic he is. How understanding he is.

He’s also, as we all know, incredibly observant. I have no doubt that the second he started talking to Ed, he saw the similarities between him and Roy, of which there are several. Using that knowledge, he gives Winry his take on the situation. He tells her why Ed is probably acting the way he is and not talking to her. Why? Because he’s been there.

Hughes wasn’t talking about himself with her--he’s talking about Roy.

You know, Roy “I have to save this whole damn country by myself” Mustang. The guy who literally gives up any dreams of a normal life just to do that.

We see it over and over throughout the story. He bends over backwards to help others, especially the Elric brothers. He has a web of lies surrounding them just so he could make sure Ed has access to all the resources he could possibly need to get him and his brother back to normal. Never mind that he’ll throw himself into the line of fire just to protect the people he cares about--like jumping in to save Hawkeye and Fuery. Never mind he put Havoc before himself right after the fight with Lust and when he was offered the Philosopher’s Stone.

Hughes knows this. He’s been Roy’s best friend for years. So, it’s no wonder he gives Winry this advice. He’s been in her shoes before. Hell, I’d go as far to say that Winry is to Ed as Hughes was to Roy. They’re the ones doing whatever they can to make sure they support, protect, and strengthen the other. Winry does it through automail and by being a friend Ed can talk to and trust. Hughes does it through finding any way he can to push Roy to the top, also acting as a person he can talk to and trust.

That’s why the AU I’ve got going with Kira is so devastating. Both of them lost someone they relied on to be there for them. They both lost someone they loved.

This was originally going to just be a post of me essentially saying “I love Maes Hughes” but then it turned into this rambling mess. What else is new.

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                                   Easy 🤝 Roy              not letting others see their more negative emotions

Like seriously, Roy knows his reputation. He’s spent years crafting it, so he makes sure others see only what he wants them to. In his eyes, he’s supposed to be the calm, strong leader who gets things done and can always be relied on. Commanding Officer, rank of Colonel when he’s not even thirty, and he has a lot of people looking to him to lead. He put some of that pressure on himself, yes: he wants to fix Amestris, and he’s not going to wait for someone else to do it.

But the rest? He’s feeling pressure on all sides to be one thing 100% of the time. Never weak. Never vulnerable. Never anything less than Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, the Hero of Ishval. He has to be strong, or it’ll prove that he’s far too young for his rank, not worth following, not a capable soldier, et cetera. It’s incredibly telling that he only ever willingly shows what he perceives as weakness to two people: Maes Hughes and Riza Hawkeye.

And then, when he loses Hughes, he doesn’t let anyone see how much pain he was in. He kept that shit under lockdown until the Promised Day.

There’s a reason why I continue to compare Roy to Atlas in Greek Mythology. He’s willing to bear the burden of every single living soul in Amestris. Empathetic to a fault, though occasionally tactless, he’ll listen to others talk about their problems and work to fix them if he can. That’s what he does: he fixes things. His problems, though? Anything he considers negative is shoved in a bottle and kicked under the bed away from view.

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Red and Kira talking about muses and anger, so I gotta chime in now that I’m on a computer.

And it got long again. Of course. Can’t write drafts, but I can ramble about characters.

Roy and Ed have similar issues with anger. They both have a lot of it, and, when they reach that point of true rage, it’s difficult to pull them back. Righteousness tends to play into their anger as well--aka they believe that their anger and what they’re doing it is justified. With Ed, we see that with Shou Tucker while we see Roy do that with Envy. However, even accounting for the differences in situations, there are distinct differences between Roy and Ed with this particular emotion.

The differences in the situation: Ed’s reaction came from a sudden event. He didn’t know Shou Tucker would be a truly awful human being. That fury hit him all at once, not something that was allowed to fester like Roy’s. He didn’t have time to process what happened. Let’s also not forget that he’s a teenager.

Something I find interesting about Ed: yes, he’s angry. A lot. He’ll often let that anger get to him too. But, if he’s had time to process something, and he’s not reacting right away, there’s more logic behind his actions. He’s able to figure out how he wants to handle a situation not based on his emotions. Go back to that scene with original Greed in Devil’s Nest. Once he was able to cool his head, he came up with a plan, used his alchemy knowledge to use, and held Greed off.

That’s another spot where he and Roy are similar: the anger they show other people is superficial. It’s not at full strength. Why that is, though, is different. For Ed, he reacts to what he experiences. For Roy, he’s playing the long game and letting others people think he’s this hot-headed soldier. He doesn’t want them to see what he’s truly capable of.

It’s actually interesting to look at how the 2003 anime handles these two compared to the manga/BH. In 2003, Ed and Al spent a lot of time with Tucker, but the sudden betrayal was still that: sudden. Kira mentioned in their post how it foreshadowed what happened with Greed, and it does so beautifully. With Roy, we see that he was a killer during the Ishval war, and he regretted the orders he followed. But, even after Hughes dies, he refuses to kill until he absolutely has to: with Pride/the Fuhrer.

The reverse happens in the manga/BH. Ed holds to his morals and refuses to kill. He is more than capable of killing, as Kira mentioned, but he doesn’t. When it comes to taking down the Homunculi, Ed does what he has to. But, with Roy, he’s willing to go the extra distance. He’s willing to kill not just because he feels it’s morally justified, but because he can. He had Envy nearly dead, and Riza could have easily handled him at that point. Did Roy want that, though? No. He wanted to give Envy the worst death possible. He wanted to make Envy feel pain.

He was vindictive with his rage. In general, Ed wasn’t. That’s why it was incredibly important for Ed to be one of the three people to talk Roy down off that ledge. There is only one time where Roy intentionally hurt Ed, and that was after Ed was holding him by the lapels and was prepared to hurt him. One punch, and that was it, and it definitely wasn’t at his full strength. He would never hurt Ed or Al outside of that, especially not with his flame alchemy. That’s a line he won’t cross--well, not until he’s blind with fury.

That was originally unintentional, but then I decided to keep it.

So, not only was Ed someone he never wanted to hurt, but Ed also knew what that rage was like. He knows it well, and he knows Roy has similar moral convictions--he’s trying to be at his best partially because of Roy. He’s not going to let someone who is so intent on fixing this country, someone he looks up to, let his fury get the best of him.

Ed finding Shou Tucker first was a good thing--not for Ed and Al, obviously, but for Shou Tucker, Nina, and Roy. Had Roy found him, and he learned what happened to that young girl who wasn’t that much older than Elicia, he might have let his anger do the talking. He doesn’t consider what Shou Tucker did to be acceptable at all.

Where was I going with this? I forget. I kept getting distracted. TLDR: so many characters in FMA need anger management.

Maybe one day I’ll talk about how Roy likes being as powerful as he is, and why he knows he needs people to keep him in check.

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@pertrahe replied to this post: /Ya know; that makes me wonder what he thinks when Olivier says 'You want it you can have it, it would be better in your hands then my brother's.' When annoucing him her 'heir'. Because, despite it coming out as a jest, she's dead serious at that time ( or else she wouldn't have even said it to alex ). Thus -- indirectly.... complamenting him... |8

LISTEN.

THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON WITH THIS SCENE.

And because I rambled, I’m putting my fully reply under a cut.

Before I analyze it, I’m going to jump back to Chapter 67: Burgeoning Borders in the manga. This is where the Elric brothers loop Olivier in on what’s going on. We learn a few things from her response to all this. For reference:

For one, we learn that the Eastern troops trained with the North. We didn’t know that before. Second, we learn that Olivier respects Hawkeye and Havoc. Her decision to help partly comes from that fact alone. Third, we see her opinion of Mustang, and that she aims to become Fuhrer as well. She describes him as a rival, which, coming from Olivier, is a sign of respect.

She could’ve left it at “His downfall would please me” and said nothing else. She could’ve done what most people do with Mustang: write him off as a young punk who isn’t worth his rank. But, Olivier has not only trained with him when he was stationed in the East, but she knows he served with her brother, Alex, in Ishval. One of them left the battlefield in disgrace, and the other was heralded as a hero for providing a quick end to the war. One stayed and fought while the other left.

That reason alone is why she favors Mustang over her brother. Despite his misgivings about the war, he stayed. Not only that, but he decided he was going to do something about the military corruption. I think Olivier might be one of the only people who doesn’t see Mustang as just some young punk who was promoted too quickly. Though, she probably can’t stand how quickly he ascended through the ranks. She sees what he’s trying to do because she’s working towards the same goal.

Let’s skip ahead to Chapter 84: Shadow of the Pursuer where we see the two of them interact. They exchange their version of pleasantries before Roy says the following: “The Armstrong family is great indeed. The size of this mansion is incredible. A company of troops... no, even a battalion might fit in there.”

These two have different approaches on how to become Fuhrer, but they’re both expert strategists. Roy saying that to Olivier is his way of telling her that he knows what she’s planning. He knows she plans to use the mansion as a base of operations for the Briggs troops. We can assume he knows this due to General Grumman (and how he got that information to Roy in the first place). I also like to think that, if he were in her shoes, he’d use a similar strategy.

Olivier doesn’t miss a beat. She replies to Mustang right away and tells him that she wants him to have the mansion. This exchange is telling on both their parts.

Olivier: Since you like it so much, if something happens to me, I want you to have it. After all, this mansion won’t fit inside a coffin. Roy: Aren’t you going to give it to your brother? Olivier: Given the choice between Alex and you, I slightly prefer handing it over to you. Roy: Then, ma’am, I’m honored by your trust, no matter how slight.

First things first, this speaks to the point I made earlier about how I believe she views Roy’s involvement in Ishval. He stayed compared to her brother, and thus earned her respect. Second, Roy doesn’t object any further. Olivier is a Major General from an esteemed family, and he’s not going to question her.

I truly believe he’s honored that she trusts him of all people. That she can see through his ruse that has just about everyone else fooled. It’s not that she doesn’t trust her brother. When the two of them fight together, we see that she does trust and believe in him. It’s because Mustang is a like-minded individual with a similar goal to her.

He also knows a compliment when he hears one, and he knows Olivier isn’t the type to bluff. He is fully aware that she’s serious. To me, I think he’s incredibly honored and probably a little taken aback. He doesn’t say it aloud, but he trusts Olivier a great deal. It’s not just because she comes from a well-respected family and clearly earned her rank. It’s not just because she’s also an expert strategist and an excellent leader.

She made sure the Elric brothers were safe under her watch--and she listened to them. At the end of the day, that is what matters to Roy: keeping those boys safe and making sure they can achieve their goal.

Can you tell I have a lot of feelings about the Olivier and Roy dynamic and the parallels we see with them? Because I have so many.

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@deathleads: I think I already know the answer to this but I'm very curious after seeing that last reblog : would roy ever teach his kids, if he had any, flame alchemy? Or even just Alchemy in general?

This man wants kids. Just gonna start there. He wants to be a dad.

Ed and Al will always be his kids. He just wants more.

And you can bet he will dote on them just like Hughes.

Roy is the type of guy who would plan this stuff out in advance. It’d be included in the, “Do we want kids?” talk. He’d want them to learn alchemy, and not just from him. If his spouse is an alchemist, he wants them to teach the kids too! He’d also rope in Ed, Al, and May at the very least. As soon as Alex Louis Armstrong hears that Mustang has kids, you can bet he’ll be over to teach them too.

Any kids of Mustang are going to have a huge extended family. He wants that for them, and that family doesn’t have to mean blood related. Because guess what? It wasn’t for him.

Flame alchemy deserves its own talk. On one hand, Roy wants to shield his children from it, and uphold his promise to Riza by not having anymore flame alchemists. On the other, he knows full well that he can’t protect his children forever, and they’re going to ask him why he’s known as the Flame Alchemist. They will probably see him use it, and wonder about it. They’ll ask questions. They’ll wonder if they can learn it.

Off the bat, Roy would say no. He doesn’t want his kids following his path. But, here’s the thing: those kids won’t see war. Amestris is going to be incredibly different as they grow up, and changing. Alchemy won’t be primarily used for combat. He’d come around to seeing that Flame Alchemy doesn’t have to be destructive. It never had to be.

I think back to how Avatar: The Last Airbender showed fire. We see it as mostly destructive throughout most of the show. But, then you have people like Iroh, and the Sun Warriors. They don’t use fire as just a weapon. In The Firebending Masters, the Sun Warrior chief says this: “Fire is life, not just destruction.” Later in the episode, Aang comes to that conclusion as well: “All this time, I thought firebending was destruction. Since I hurt Katara, I've been too afraid and hesitant. But now I know what it really is ... it's energy, and life.”

And I honestly think Roy would come to a similar conclusion--or, at least he could. He’d leave the decision up to Riza since flame alchemy came from her father. But, the argument I could see him using in favor of it is, “It doesn’t have to be just our burden anymore. It doesn’t have to be a burden at all. The next generation of alchemists won’t have to go through what we did.”

He also wouldn’t hide his past from his kids. When they’re old enough to understand, he will sit down with them, and go through what he did, and why he’s hesitant to teach them flame alchemy. He’d want them to be fully aware of its history, and what it can do, before even starting the basics for it.

TLDR: It largely depends on if he can get himself to come to that conclusion, if his spouse is okay with it, and if Riza is okay with it.

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season 5, episode 2 of FMAB:

This got long because hey, guess what, I have a lot of feelings. So I put all of it under a readmore for length.

I've watched this scene several times, but this is the first time I noticed something: Roy is actually tearing up when he says he finally ran Envy down. It's a very small detail, but we can see it as his voice also breaks.

Something else: after we see that flashback sequence, we don't see Roy's eyes. They're obscured. The only ones who can see his face are probably Ed and Scar, and I have to wonder what went through their heads.

Another detail I didn't notice previously: when Envy is trying to get the group to fight each other, Roy is smiling at him. He figured out what Envy's trying to do. But, when we see Envy start to cry, Roy's grimacing. He's pissed. In his eyes, Envy caused so much pain to the humans he appears to be jealous of. What right does he have to cry over that? When Envy finally dies, Roy comments that he took the coward's way out, but he's also covering his eyes.

Roy wears many masks. He's a good actor who can show others what he wants them to see. But, when he's vulnerable, his eyes give away every bit of emotion he's feeling. So he covers them. Doesn’t let anyone see.

Which of course makes him losing his eyesight even more poetic.

One last thing: what about Riza's words to him got him to stop? Ed and Scar contributed to breaking through that anger, but Riza did one thing different: she acknowledged the pain he was in. She knew how important it was to him personally that he tracked down Hughes’s killer. This wasn’t just about going after the senior staff for corruption. For Roy Mustang, it was about finding the one responsible for killing his best friend. Riza acknowledged that, and she made it clear that she would take care of Envy for him, and not let him do something reckless.

I don’t think she could have done that without Ed and Scar’s help. Roy needed to see that his actions hurt more than one person. Ed (and Al) are people he’s protected all this time, and doing this would hurt them. For Scar, he can’t very well help rebuild Ishval, the place he helped destroy, if he’s letting his anger control him. Those two pave the way for Riza.

“I know you’re hurting. I know you’ve been hurting. I understand why this hurts, and why this is important to you. But, this won’t take away the pain. It’ll just make the pain spread to people you care about, and I know you would never want that.”

Brotherhood left out one important detail when ending this scene that the manga does: Roy takes off his gloves before lowering Riza’s weapon. He disarms himself before asking her to. Riza asked him to lower his weapon, and him taking off his gloves is him listening to her.

Something else I found interesting: Scar tells Ed that if Roy succumbs to this, he doesn’t think he’d recover. This is coming from a man who made it his mission to kill the people responsible for the loss of his home, his family, and everything he knew. Over the course of the manga/Brotherhood, we see Scar work through that anger, and see that this isn’t what he shouldn’t be doing with it. Multiple people show him this: the Elric brothers, his fellow Ishvalans, Winry, and May. It takes time. It’s not an overnight sort of thing.

So, when he says he doubts Roy would recover from following that same path, that statement carries a lot of weight.

It’s excellent writing on Arakawa’s part: two characters switch places the further the story progresses. In the end, Scar started on his path of revenge because he was hurt just like Roy. He was in so much pain after losing everything and everyone he loved. He wanted that pain to stop, so he went after the parties responsible for causing it. Only after months and months of him reflecting on his choices, and having input from others, was he able to put his revenge aside.

Which leads to the big question: why does he believe that Roy might not recover like he did? He started down this path because he was hurt, and lost someone he loved. There’s a key difference between the two of them, though: Scar was alone when he started down this path, but that changed as time went on. Roy started down this path with others, but we saw him gradually isolate himself. Some of it wasn’t his choice--Wrath took away his team, his family. But, he also did it to himself. He’s doing the exact opposite as Scar, and he’s not realizing that he’s hurting people by doing so.

That’s why it’d be harder for him to recover. It took Scar a while to see how his actions affected others. Before Hughes died, Roy was painfully aware of how one person’s actions could affect the lives of everyone else around him. Killing Envy, and succumbing to all that hatred, would just further isolate him, and he’d be blind to the pain he’s causing because he thought what he was doing was right.

I really want to know what Scar and Ed said to each other. Someone give me that.

Lord, Arakawa did such a good job with crafting this story and these characters. This is just masterful. Big props to her.

[wyrdify]

So, a lot of you know I draw inspiration from a lot of sources. When it comes to Roy, A:tLA gives me plenty of material to work with regarding how fire works, how it’s controlled, how it’s used in the show, and what one’s style says about the firebender in question (Zuko, Azula, Iroh, Zhao, Ozai, etc). In FMA, that sort of thinking also applies to how one uses alchemy. There are differences in application depending on the person (ex: watch how Ed uses his alchemy in comparison to Al or Izumi).

Flame Alchemy is unique to Roy, and it’s incredibly versatile. Because of that, you’ll probably notice I take some things I saw in A:tLA and apply them for how Roy transmutes. For example, if you’re reading the Camping Trip from Hell thread I’m doing with Kira, you might have recognized something I had Roy do a couple of replies back. If not, this video will show essentially what he did: link.

I had a lot of fun with that, honestly. I love getting to write Roy using his flame alchemy.

A note: Kimblee’s alchemy is the only one that can compare application wise considering they both use explosions. However, the methods differ: Roy is altering the oxygen density in the air while Kimblee works with the imbalance of elements to create reactions.

Another note: If I were to compare Roy to a firebender in the A:tLA/LoK universe, he’d be a mix of Jeong Jeong and Azula with some Iroh mixed in. Jeong Jeong style wise (and views on fire), Azula with her calculated and precise hits (pinpoint aiming much?), and Iroh with his versatility (aka he’s willing to look at other bending styles and adapt).

[wyrdify]

Roy’s fight with Lust and his torture fight with Envy are so incredibly different. You see two different versions of Roy: the future leader of Amestris, and the monster born in Ishval.

When Roy got to Lust for his Big Damn Hero™ moment, he was focused. Lust just nearly killed Havoc, and was about to kill Hawkeye and Al. He was heavily wounded, and probably in excruciating pain. However, he put his team before himself, and didn’t let Lust hurt them any further. Every attack in that fight was precise, focused, and, most importantly, controlled. He wasn’t looking to overdo it. He didn’t want to use more force than necessary. Notice that he gave Lust time to recover each time before attacking again, and just how close she got to him before death. She was inches away before he performed his last attack.

Lust, before she died, commented on just how cold and focused he was. Despite how much pain he was in, and how angry he was that Lust went after people he cared about, he reigned his emotions in, and didn’t let anything cloud his judgment. Never mind that he likely knew Lust had a hand in Hughes’s death. A good leader needed to have that ability, and not let emotions make their decisions for them. A good leader also puts others before themself. Roy did just that.

Then, you get to Envy. When the team encounters Envy, none of them are terribly injured--tired, maybe, but everyone appears to be fine. Envy has no intention of letting anyone get any further. He’s there to make sure no one interferes with Father’s plans. He’s not there to fight, but he will if it means keeping the team distracted.

He just had to admit that he was the one who killed Maes Hughes. The answer Roy’s been searching for months for. We can see, in both the manga and Brotherhood, the moment his eyes change. We can see when all of that grief, all of that pain, all of that guilt, and all of that anger hits him. You see, because he wasn’t there to protect his friend--he was useless, and he hates it.

Cue the rage. That word only scratches the surface of what he felt, and what he expressed. At that moment, Roy made a decision: he needed to kill Envy. It wasn’t on behalf of his team, nor was it for Amestris. He needed to kill Envy for himself. He wanted Envy to feel every bit of pain he did, and then some. To him, Envy didn’t deserve an ounce of his mercy like Lust.

In that moment, he became what Wrath/Fuhrer Bradley had in mind for him back in Ishval: a monster who didn’t regret killing. With Lust, Roy let it be a fight. He didn’t aim to torture her. He let her try to get a hit on him. He let her talk, and didn’t say much himself. With Envy, Roy barely let him speak. He showed no mercy in burning his tongue, his eyes (twice), and didn’t pause his attacks. He described what he was doing to Envy in detail--the horrors of it all. And, once he had Envy cornered, he just kept going. He didn’t stop until Envy was literally under his boot, ready to die.

His eyes were manic, furious, and downright terrifying. Envy ran from him more than once--even he was scared of Roy.

This was the power flame alchemy gave. This was why Berthold didn’t want anyone to know it. This was why Riza had Roy ensure no one else could learn it. Flame alchemy, in the hands of a master like Roy, was horrifying. And, I think part of Roy enjoyed that power. Had he completely lost his morals back in Ishval, he likely would’ve turned out similar to Kimblee. In Ishval, Roy made the conscious decision that he wasn’t going to be like that. He wasn’t going to be tempted by the power flame alchemy gave him. If anything, he’d use that power for good, for others.

Thank goodness for Riza, for Ed, and for Scar, not letting him stray from that. Thank goodness they were there to remind him that this wasn’t who he wanted to be.

tldr: Roy is fully capable of being a monster, and being an absolutely vicious, cold-blooded killer. He just doesn’t let himself.

Also, flame alchemy is downright scary.

[wyrdify]

Just sitting here thinking about how the temperature Roy’s fire likely gets to, and looking at how fire can change color based on temperature (and if other elements are in play). Here’s the source I’m looking at.

This will probably get into some body horror stuff so I’ll put it under a readmore.

tldr: There’s a reason Brotherhood/the manga didn’t give him a Philosopher’s Stone. Kimblee was terrifying enough.

Based on the color (bright yellow based on his dealings with Envy), and the fact he’s not mixing in other elements with his transmutation, it’s probably somewhere in the 2,100-2,500°F range. The average fire doesn’t get to that level.

Imagine if he could make it hotter. Imagine him creating white fire, or blue fire. Yes, Azula may have inspired this thinking. Just... that is legitimately terrifying. To effectively burn bone, the fire needs to be constant, and around 1100°F (Source). And it takes time--up to two to three hours. And Roy’s fire, if I’m estimating correctly, is around double that by the time he’s in Ishval. His fire appears to be orange to bright yellow. When he encounters Envy, it’s almost completely yellow.

In Chapter 61 of the manga, when Riza asks him to burn the tattoo on her back, Roy says the following: “Since the war began, I’ve learned how to control the intensity of these flames. Everything from incinerating a body to inflicting non-fatal burns on a minuscule area.” This suggests he can not only control how much fire he creates, but just how hot it gets. We don’t see how long it takes for his victims to die, but we can assume it was pretty quick. Minutes compared to hours.

Honestly... I wouldn’t be surprised if he could create white fire, and maybe even blue fire, particularly as the war goes on. However, I doubt he’d want to do so once the campaign in Ishval is over. He doesn’t want to go overboard. He doesn’t want to kill people with his flame alchemy. That’s why we never see it go beyond bright yellow, even during his rampage with Envy. Then again, his control during that is questionable.

I don’t know where I was going with this. I started researching this yesterday, and now I’m just... Roy is legitimately terrifying. It’s no wonder why Berthold never wanted to teach him flame alchemy. Look at what he could do with it.