Roy Mustang

Roy Mustang (ロイ・マスタング, Roi Masutangu), the Flame Alchemist, is a State Alchemist and officer in the Amestrian State Military. A hero of the Ishval Civil War and Edward Elric's superior officer, Colonel Mustang is a remarkably capable commander who plans one day soon to become the next Führer of Amestris.

Appearance and Personality
On the surface, Roy is a decidedly shallow and self-absorbed man, infamous among many of his colleagues and subordinates alike for the selfish and narcissistic aura he gives off. Easily as arrogant as his young protégé Edward, Colonel Mustang is wont to act in an ostentatious manner and appears to act mostly out of self-interest rather than any sort of philanthropy. He comes off to most as a sort of cocky layabout, shirking most of his duties and delegating his paperwork to subordinates while sitting idly at his desk with an amused smile on his face as he procrastinates, but quick to take action when it appears that there is glory and military notoriety to be gained. Roy is expertly manipulative and prone to think several steps ahead of those around him, giving him a remarkable talent for making subordinates act exactly as he wishes despite appearing not to have had a hand in their decisions - all traits which make the fact that he has managed to attain the lofty rank of colonel at such a young age a matter of public gossip.

Roy also has the reputation of being an incorrigible womanizer, spending much of his time cavorting about town with various women and wooing several of the servicewomen with his abundant charm, good looks and charisma. This adds another facet to his unpopularity among the enlisted men, many of whom have had their sweethearts and crushes romanced away from them by his hand.

However, while these traits do have a place in his real personality, much of his outward persona can perhaps be considered an intentional façade perfectly designed to cause those unfamiliar with him to underestimate his remarkable intelligence and ability. Mustang is an exceptional tactician, well-versed in various strains of combat theory and particularly talented in the realms of surreptitious information-gathering, covert operations and enemy ensnarement. At the core, he is a remarkably devoted commander whose primary focus and personal duty is to his friends and subordinates. Though he hides it well behind a veil of cynicism and self-importance, Roy Mustang is a man who cares deeply about the people who trust and support him and goes to great lengths to ensure their safety and well-being, even at the risk of his own. As a man with considerable power, Mustang considers himself a protector to those without and acts accordingly, earning the staunch loyalty of his most trusted compatriots.

Unfortunately, his self-imposed position as protector has caused him to display a penchant toward stubbornness in regards to his pride on the field and a fiery temper, both of which have been shown to cloud his judgment in certain situations.

Relationships
Riza Hawkeye - Easily the most significant of Roy's personal relationships, his connection with Lt. Hawkeye goes deeper and further back than any other. The daughter of Berthold Hawkeye, the man who taught Roy to use alchemy in his youth, Riza has known Roy throughout his entire military career and has a personal stake in how he chooses to live his life. In turn, Roy has entrusted Hawkeye with his life as his personal assistant and bodyguard and has deemed her as both his conscience and executioner by giving her the express authority to shoot him in the back should he ever step off the righteous path. Though many speculate that Roy and Riza are involved romantically (each of them has joked about the topic over the course of the series), their relationship - while not purely professional - has shown no real signs of crossing the line into the amatory as of yet.

Maes Hughes - A close friend from their shared days at the military academy, Maes Hughes is Roy's closest friend inside and outside of the military. Almost constantly calling Roy on the phone or dropping into his office to say hello, Maes' uplifting persona is an active deterrent to Colonel Mustang's often gloomy disposition. Maes is also the strongest secret supporter of Roy's bid for Führer, often giving him inside information from his position in the investigations office at Central Command as well as slipping him pointers on how to achieve his dream. Though Roy often receives Hughes with disdain and annoyance, when Maes is mysteriously murdered, Roy is overcome with grief and rage to the point that he becomes almost obsessed with finding his friend's killer.

Edward Elric - Officially, Mustang is Edward's superior officer, but their relationship is far from the typical professional connection. There exists between them a sort of amicable animosity, as Roy takes a great deal of personal pleasure in teasing Fullmetal and watching him squirm under his orders and, at the same time, Ed takes pleasure in getting around his orders and showing Mustang up whenever he manages to find an opportunity. Though their meetings are fraught with a great deal of apparent, mutual dislike, Flame and Fullmetal hold a great deal of respect for one another and are compatriots as well as co-conspirators in the secret battle against the Homunculi. Having originally scouted the young boy for the State Alchemist program and formed a bond with him, Roy genuinely wishes to see Edward fulfill his goal and Edward also subtly supports Mustang's secret bid to become the Führer and improve the country.

Lt. General Grumman - Roy's superior officer from his days at East Area Headquarters, General Grumman has played a sort of grandfatherly role in Roy's development as a soldier and officer. Having taught the young Flame Alchemist everything he knows about covert operations, subordinate coordination and womanizing, Grumman feels rather fondly for his protégé and is personally responsible for the young man's speedy rise through the ranks. Roy owes Grumman a great deal and trusts him enough to seek the old man's help and advice when he finds himself in a pinch.

Flame Alchemy
Flame Alchemy: A powerful alchemist in his own right, Mustang's combat alchemy is made possible by his custom made gloves. Made of "pyrotex/ignition cloth" and embroidered with unique flame alchemy Transmutation Circles, these gloves create a spark when Roy rubs his fingers together and allow him to manipulate the concentration of oxygen in the surrounding air, raising its density to a level at which it becomes combustible and creating pathways of oxygen through which he can direct the ensuing flame birthed by the spark. The 'snap' sound is caused by the instantaneous speed at which the gases and sparks react together and pop (not his fingers actually 'snapping', to common belief.)

While Mustang's Flame Alchemy cannot be used on rainy days because the humidity makes it impossible for his gloves to produce sparks, it becomes clear that water itself does not make the Colonel entirely as "useless" as his subordinates assume. Using the transmutation circles on his gloves, Roy is able to separate oxygen atoms from the hydrogen atoms in water molecules, isolating the two combustible gases. Though this method can only be used when a large quantity of water is present in a relatively closed-off space (and not in the rain where the air is open and separating hydrogen and oxygen for the purpose of combustion would pose far too much danger to anyone in the vicinity), with an outside source of ignition such as a cigarette lighter or a match, Roy can produce extremely powerful, localized explosions.

It has also been revealed recently that Roy is able to delegate each hand to a different flame effect, possibly due to a difference in hand dexterity. The right hand appears to allow for large explosive attacks, while the left allows for smaller, but strong and very accurate pinpoint flame attacks, demonstrated when he used his left hand to evaporate the liquid in Envy's eyes causing excruciating pain, and the right to engulf Envy in a large explosion.

Flame Alchemy is the brainchild of the master alchemist Berthold Hawkeye, who had spent several years perfecting it before his death from illness in 1905. Believing it to be the greatest and most powerful form of alchemy possible, Hawkeye refused to pass on the knowledge to Roy, who was his apprentice at the time, and instead entrusted the secrets of his search for knowledge to his young daughter Riza - tattooing the perfected array onto her back as the only physical record of its existence. The full array appears to consist of a circle corralling an inverted hexagram made up of a large air triangle and a large earth triangle, both splitting into identical pairs as they intersect, with a fire triangle at the center, pointing upward toward a flame. Below the hexagram is an image of a salamander. Outside the circle is a pair of entwined basilisks and the text of the "Libera Me" responsory repeated multiple times. After Roy gains Riza's trust and takes the Flame Alchemy knowledge for himself, he modifies the symbol somewhat for his gloves (removing the text and the basilisks in favor of a simplified circle) and uses his new knowledge to burn parts of the image off of Riza's back, erasing the important aspects of it from existence.

In the Book in Figure Red omake chapter, Roy reveals that he sometimes uses alchemy for the purpose of scoring a date. In his "Oxygen de Gentleman Strategy", he uses his gloves to raise the oxygen density around a specific woman to the point that she becomes dizzy. He then, rushes to her side to prevent her from falling, asks her if she is all right and follows up with other sweet words and an invitation for tea.

History
Roy was orphaned at a very young age, being adopted by his aunt, Madame Christmas. She raised him, in the words of Character’s Guide 3, “to be a fine man”. As he saw Amestris was constantly at war, Roy nurtured the desire of aiding the stability and security of the country and found in Alchemy means to do so.

Roy went to learn elementary alchemy from Master Hawkeye (Berthold Hawkeye, in the 2009 anime) at some point of his young life, later leaving his master's house to join the military. While in the military academy, he meets his best friend, Maes Hughes, who further encourages him to become a State Alchemist so that he may help the common people, despite the protests of his mentor.

He returned to the Hawkeyes’ house to try and finish his training at the age of 20, only to find his master at his deathbed. He tried to reason his master into teaching him the Flame Alchemy so Roy could become a State Alchemist and, by doing so, helping the country and its people, to what Master Hawkeye answered to be naïve and utopic. Even so, he stated that, though he didn’t have enough time to teach Roy, he has passed his knowledge on to his daughter, who might reveal him that secret “if he proofs himself to be worthy of it”. Master Hawkeye then dies, making Roy promise to look after his daughter.

During a conversation with Riza at her father’s funeral, he reveals his wishes of ‘getting to the top’ to protect all people, to which Riza shared and decided to reveal her father’s research. (a large tattoo that covered most her back)

Later in 1908, when Roy was 23 years old, he was already a State Alchemist working for the Military. He like others at the time were sent to completely raze a region Amestris was unable to subdue. He runs into Maes Hughes and they reminisce briefly about the past and discuss the State's involvement in the War before they are ambushed by an injured Ishvalan. They were saved by a sniper, later revealed to be none other than Riza Hawkeye. Mustang continues through the war with a even more pessimistic view and considers himself to be a killer, unable to help people as he had previously hoped. He also seems to blame himself of taking Riza Hawkeye along with him in his downfall, betraying his promise to her and their secret of Flame Alchemy and being responsible for her becoming an assassin like himself and Hughes, which later led to him "trusting his back to her" as a sort of compensation and renewed vow of not using the Flame Alchemy against the people.

However, Mustang discovers that while he thought he was alone in the war, simply murdering people, he was saving the lives of the men in his unit. This new idea appears to spur him into making an attempt to become the Führer, which he explains to Hughes at the end of the war. He then surrounds himself with people he knows he can trust; Hughes, Fuery, Falman, Havoc, Breda, and lastly Hawkeye. In an attempt of making up to Riza for betraying their pact of ‘using Alchemy for good deeds’, he asks Hawkeye to become his personal assistant and bodyguard. This was another way of saying his life was in her hands, and that if he ever strayed from the path of wanting to help people, of wanting to change the government, she could shoot him from his back and kill him.

Ranks Mustang has been showed with are a Major (Flashbacks of the Ishval massacre), Lieutenant Colonel (Chapter 24) and Colonel (for all other parts of the manga until this point).

Eastern Command
In the beginning of the series, Mustang is heading to Resembool to meet with a talented alchemist named Edward Elric, who he was told was around 30 years old. He's corrected by Riza Hawkeye when she tells him it was just a mistake. The two go to find the Elrics anyway. When they arrive at the house, Mustang stumbles upon the human transmutation circle. Enraged, he heads to the Rockbells house, as it was said in his information that they could be there, and pushes his way past Pinako to find the brothers. He picks Ed up by his collar and starts to yell at him about what he did, at which point Al begins to apologize profusely. Mustang then offers them a chance to become state alchemists in order to have access to greater resources and be able to get their bodies back.

"Fishing" in Central
Following Hughes' death, Mustang investigates the incident in secret despite the military closing the case after convicting Maria Ross. Trusting in Ross's innocence, and with the help of Barry the Chopper, Mustang uses his alchemy skills to fake Ross's death and engineer her escape from Amestris. While breaking into a military laboratory with Barry's help (Chapter 39: Complications at Central), Lust confronts Mustang and Havoc. In the ensuing fight, Havoc is stabbed in the spine; while Lust sets off to find the rest of the intruders, she leaves Mustang and Havoc to bleed to death. After she slices Barry to pieces and is setting on Hawkeye (with Alphonse trying to stop her), she is almost blown off her feet by an explosion. Mustang had cut a transmutation circle into his skin and seared his wounds closed with fire, using a lighter in place of his ruined gloves. He then proceeds to mercilessly shoot flames at Lust, to the point where her Philosopher's Stone is unable to fuel her regenerative powers, killing her. Mustang later helps in transporting Ed, Al, Hawkeye, Dr. Knox, Lin, an injured Lan Fan, and a tied-up Gluttony to a deserted house in the woods. However, Gluttony does not hold long, and breaks free. Mustang manages to escape by car, leaving Ed, Al, and Lin to battle Gluttony.

Gathering Force
After discovering that King Bradley is a Homunculus, he tries to expose him to the top echelons of the military. This move costs Mustang and deprives him of his subordinates - King Bradley places Riza Hawkeye under his command and authorizes the transfer of Mustang’s remaining personnel to the far reaches of Amestris.

In chapter 69, he is contacted by Major General Olivier Armstrong through an old flower-seller, who made Mustang buy all her flowers for the information. The old flower seller, said to have served the Armstrong family for generations, revealed that Olivier is intending for the "sword" of East Area troops under Mustang's command to join with the "shield" of the Briggs mountain range troops in order to protect Briggs, and wants Mustang's cooperation. He finally manages to meet Hawkeye in person, who manages to tell him that Selim Bradley is a Homunculus. He later passes that message to Olivier Armstrong, as she takes over the residence of the Armstrong family to herself. He then meets up with his subordinates and the four attack Central's military(wounding but not killing anyone) while Fuhrer Bradley is "gone."

The Promised Day
In chapter 93-4 Mustang's gang arrives at Central. While Mustang and Hawkeye meet up with Edward, the other subordinates send out a radio transmission of how the upper brass of the military is corrupted, although they say it in believable terms and do not mention the Homunculi or their real intentions. Mustang encounters Envy, who after being questioned, reveals he was Hughes' killer. Edward, Scar, Mei, and the chimera all move on to get to Father, leaving Hawkeye and Mustang to fight Envy. Envy, realizing that Mustang could easily kill him, attempts to escape. Mustang orders Hawkeye not to come with and goes off after Envy, but she comes anyway. Envy makes another dash for it when Mustang mercilessly continues to burn him, and discovers Hawkeye searching for him. He shifts into Mustang and deceives her (most likely planning to do so for just long enough to kill her) momentarily. Hawkeye, however, understands that it could be Envy and tricks the homunculus by saying that Mustang never calls her "lieutenant" but Riza when the two of them are alone. Envy falls for the trap which confirms that it was indeed Envy. She is able to take him on with her guns for a little while even with injury, however, Envy eventually is able to get the upper hand and ensnares her in his elongated arm. Just as he is about to kill her, Mustang blasts him from a side entry, and warns Envy that Riza is one of his dearest subordinates. He burns Envy one final time which causes the homunculus to revert back to his ugly parasitic form from before. He is one spark away from killing him when Hawkeye, although injured to an unknown extent, gets up and puts her gun to his head. She refuses to put her gun down and tries to persuade Mustang to stop, and he explodes at her, going into a fit of rage and refusing to give up his vengeance. Ed and Scar arrive, and Ed uses his alchemy to grab Envy; Mustang then demands that Ed to give him back.

When Edward refuses, Roy threatens to burn his arm off. Edward accepts the challenge, but asks for him to look at himself first, claiming "You think you can lead a country looking like that?!". Edward then reminds him of his goal and Mustang's temper subsides a little. Scar partially agrees with Edward that Roy couldn't lead others the way he is now, but shows no opinion if Roy does exact his revenge on Envy. Roy rages about his revenge for Hughes and tells Hawkeye that if she was going to shoot, she should have shot, and then asks her what she would do if he were to die. She replies that she wouldn't continue living and would die with him. Finally, as it seems his anger has mostly subsided, he comments about how he cannot lose her too. He laments on his recent behavior and actions and apologizes to her for how he forced her to act.

Envy then cuts in, mocking their apology. He antagonizes everyone, bringing up events that he hopes might bring themselves to fight amongst each other and taunting others with the things they have done. Edward looks at him, pointing out Envy's envy of humans. Ed goes on to explain that, even though humans are weak, and sometimes they fail, humans have their friends to help them up whilst Homunculi don't have such a comfort. Envy frees himself of Edward and falls to the ground. Riza is about to shoot, but Scar stops her, pointing out that Envy doesn't have much time left. Envy comments on how pathetic he seems, on their "mocking nature", and how Edward, the one that he despises the most, is the only one that understands how he truly feels. He pulls out his philosopher's stone and disintegrates, bidding Edward a tearful farewell.

They continue their path through the subterrain but get lost, being separated from May, who was guiding them. Walking down a path, they find the Doctor who had created all the candidates for Führer and King Bradley himself. Activating a transmutation circle, he makes Ed disappear in front of their eyes, ensuing a fight between Mustang, Hawkeye and Scar against those failed attepts of creating the homunculus Wrath. The failed Führers subdue the three and the doctor tries to force Mustang into performing a Human Transmutation and becoming a qualified human sacrifice. Mustang refuses and one of the failed Führers slice Hawkeye's throat, leaving her to die. The doctor says he can cure her, but only if Mustang obliges to make a Human Transmutation. Mustang considers doing what he's told in order to save Hawkeye, but she sends him an eye signal in order to stop him, as May and the chimeras join them, resuming the fight. May staunches Hawkeye's bleeding with Xing alchemy, but Wrath and Pride arrive. Wrath then pushes Mustang into an alchemy circle by pinning his hands to the ground with swords. He is made the fifth sacrifice needed by Father.

In chapter 102, Pride uses the alchemist doctor to open the Gate of Truth forces Mustang into it. What happens while Mustang is at the gate is unclear, but as he leaves, he is transported to the room where Ed, Al and Izumi were taken before. Ed tries to talk to him, and Roy replies that he cannot see; the Truth has taken his sight as the price of looking inside the gate. Pride arrives at the scene and Father discusses the irony behind the works of the 'Truth', who took Ed's way to 'stand by himself' and his 'only family', Al's body so he 'cannot feel the mother's warmth as he craved', Izumi's 'capacity to bear a child' and, now, with Mustang, coming full circle, 'depriving the man who had a grand vision to save his country from his eyesight, denying him to see what his beloved nation will become'.

In Chapter 105, after the Alkhestric Reverse is activated, Edward, Alphonse and Izumi launch their final attack against Father. Due to Mustang becoming blind, it is unknown to what extent he will participate in the final battle, if at all.

In Chapter 106, Roy expresses his frustration and shame that he's useless at such a key battle, later asking Hawkeye if she can still fight, to which she replies she can.

2003 Anime
Mustang makes his first appearance in the series in To Challenge the Sun (episode 1), when the Elric Brothers attempt to resurrect their mother. Subsequently, Mustang is formally introduced in Mother after Alphonse brought Edward to the Rockbells' home. As a lieutenant colonel in the State Military, he came to the Elrics' hometown of Resembool in search of their father, Hohenheim. It is also implied that Roy was seeking out Winry Rockbell, the girl he had orphaned during the Ishval Rebellion, in order to see how she was doing That Which is Lost. Recognizing Edward and Alphonse's talent for alchemy, he offered them a chance to become State Alchemists and to seek him out at Central City, where he was currently stationed.

Athough appearing in episode one, the first time he speaks is in episode three "Mother" albeit only one sentence.

The Elrics take up his offer and Edward reluctantly becomes his direct subordinate when he becomes a State Alchemist. Mustang is transferred to the Eastern Territories to clean up Lieutenant Yoki's mess (Episode 9) and is promoted to colonel. He remains at Eastern Headquarters for the early portions of the series until he is transferred back to Central after Hughes' death.

In episode 15 (Ishbal Massacre) it is revealed that Roy had executed Winry Rockbell's parents in place of Scar in the manga. He was devastated by his cold-blooded actions and tried to kill himself, but to Hughes, Edward, and his subordinates, Roy explains his failure to do so by saying that he "was too much of a coward" to pull the trigger. Instead, Roy decides that he is going to work to reach a position where he would not have to obey orders like that: becoming the Fuhrer.

When Hughes dies, Mustang is devastated. When pursuing the Elrics after the Stone's creation in Liore, Mustang learns that the Führer is a Homunculus, and tries to expose him to the top brass of the military by revealing the truth about the Führer's secretary, Juliet Douglas (Episode 45).

Although Bradley intends for him to die in combat during the Northern Campaign, Mustang instead stays in Central, making his move to avenge Hughes' death. He explains his actions to Edward in the end of Goodbye, saying that he has given up his goal of becoming Fuhrer to avenge Hughes because Hughes' life is more important to him, much like Edward has given up restoring Al with the Stone, because to Ed the lives of the people who went into the Stone's creation are more important. He points out his and Ed's similarities in the scene, and Edward finally comes to respect and understand him. Roy then moves on to the Fuhrer's mansion and stages his fight. Mustang is only able to defeat King Bradley when Bradley's son, Selim, unwittingly brings the skull of the man from which the Führer was created and weakens Bradley, who then in a rage snaps Selim's neck killing him almost instantly.

As Mustang escapes the Führer's burning mansion, he is confronted by a maniacal Frank Archer, who shoots him. Hawkeye arrives in time to save him and kills Archer.

Roy loses an eye from the battle with Bradley but keeps an optimistic attitude. When Hawkeye despairs at him that she should have been there to stop Archer, Roy says that "the world's not perfect" and that's what makes it so damn beautiful." He seems to not be unhappy with what transpired in the Fuhrer's mansion, and that the loss of his eye only showed that "nothing is ever perfect."

He has a cameo in a later episode in which Envy shapeshifts into him in a failed attempt to guilt trip Ed into keeping him alive. When he does this, Ed laughs and shouts "You couldn't have picked an EASIER target!"

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa
In Conqueror of Shamballa, Mustang resigns from both alchemy and his rank to become an ordinary enlisted man in a remote outpost. The events of the series are shown to have taken a heavy toll on Roy, since he says he has not used his alchemy since killing Fuhrer Bradley; Roy says that he can still see the people he had killed in Ishval with his blinded eye. However, when Central is under attack by armies and airships, Mustang steps up and takes command, using his alchemy to defend Central. Mustang and Armstrong are able to find a hot-air balloon to reach the airships, where he is reunited with the Elric brothers, and helps them gain entry into the airship. Roy is glad to see Edward alive and well, and it is implied that it is Roy seeing Edward again that galvanizes Roy into taking charge and giving orders and using his alchemy again. When Edward leaves, he is the one to hold Alphonse back but he lets Al go in order for the younger Elric to follow his older brother. At the end of the movie, Al says that Mustang and his team are now responsible for destroying the Amestris side of the Gate.

Trivia

 * A Salamander can be found in Roy mustang's fire alchemy transmutation circle, this has significant meaning because in ancient mythology the salamander was considered the living symbol of fire and as such was completely fireproof and able to live in fire itself.
 * In the OVA "Kids", the young lookalikes of Edward, Alphonse, and Winry pass by a group of kids playing cards on a sidewalk. The kids resemble some of Mustang's men from the series, and one of them looks notably like a child version of Mustang.
 * While all original art for the manga and both anime series depicts Roy Mustang with black eyes, a few recent manga color pages show Roy with blue eyes, presumably to better portray him in moments of emotional and/or physical duress.


 * The eye Mustang lost after his battle with Pride was his left eye, coincidentally the one Pride wore an eyepatch over and the one that Archer had a cybernetic one inserted, both people having been people he confronted in that same episode.


 * Mustang's English voice actor, Travis Willingham, also does Portgas D. Ace in the Funimation dub of One Piece, the user of the Flame Flame Fruit.
 * Colonel Roy Mustang's commitment to a coup d'état against the Führer, and the symbolic loss of his left eye are eerily similar to the exploits of a World War II German Resistance member Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg who attempted to lead a small force of German soldiers in a coup against Hitler, who also lost his left eye.
 * The relationship between Riza and Roy is a heavily implied one, and fans refer to their relationship as "Royai", The first part of "Royai" Roy is his name, and the end "ai" means love.
 * Like nearly all military personnel in the Fullmetal Alchemist series, Mustang is named after a military vehicle, vessel or weapon, in his case, the P-51 Mustang, a American fighter aircraft from WWII. This aircraft is considered by many the best fighter aircraft in WWII.
 * Mustang's record for playing chess with Grumman is 1 win, 97 losses and 15 draws.
 * Mustang names all of his subordinates after chess pieces, with connotation of battle ability and usefulness to him. Fuery is the "Pawn", Falman, the "Bishop", Havoc, the "Knight", Breda, the "Rook", and Hawkeye, the "Queen".
 * Roy Mustang bears a facial resemblance to Ryuukou from Hiromu Arakawa's other series, Hero Tales (Juushin Enbu).
 * Arakawa said in the Q&A section in Guidebook 3 (Character Guidebook) that the car Roy drives in the series is actually his (and not a military car) and that he lives in a narrow rent house in Central. She says he owns little more than a couch in his living room.