#your dad could be the nicest guy on earth with a literal perfect record as a cop who has saved many many people. but that doesn't MATTER

[combustiblegarbage]

i think one of the reasons bh fans are so resistant to like, specifically cos, but also all this focus on the material fact of the military as war criminals is that saying "roy mustang is a nazi" (or hughes is a hazi, as they explicitly did with cos) implies, to their ears, "therefore you cannot like him" or "therefore you are a bad person for loving this character." and like. no one is saying that! literally not even cos is saying that! if the reason you have real trouble accepting the nazi parallel is because it will make you feel bad (or feel likle you should feel bad) about your favs, lean into that feeling! it's on purpose! 03 is saying hm perhaps the heroes we love interpersonally are sometimes cogs in a larger fascist machine that enables genocide and oppression on a mass scale. and it asks you to sit in that discomfort

there is no like, moral high or low ground about which characters you like (as long as you aren't an asshole about it lmao). there is only the metatextual aim to convey that evil is not something grand and special and uniquely designed to cause pain. it's people who are inflamed to action (or inaction) by violent patriotism. for love of country!