Roy Mustang
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Colonel Roy Mustang is a character from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime and manga series. Holding the title of Flame Alchemist, he is a skilled State Alchemist who ambitiously strives to become the next leader of Amestris. Although he has also held the ranks of Major (in flashbacks), Lt. Colonel (episodes 3-8), and Brigadier General (episodes 45-51), He is around 29-30 years old, as stated in the bonus pages of volume 4 of the manga. In the FMA Perfect Guidebook two, there is a timeline which states that Roy was born in the year 1885. Also Mustang holds the rank of Colonel in most of the anime and manga, and so he is referred to as such here.
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[edit] Personality
Outwardly arrogant and playfully manipulative, Mustang is intelligent and almost always one step ahead of his opponents. On the surface, he appears to be nothing more than a man of the military who pursues promotions and praise and is considered a ladies' man. Mustang's true goal is to become Führer in order to gain the power to reform the government in order to absolve his sins in the Ishbal War, along with the joking requirement for female officers to wear tiny miniskirts (which considerably increased Havoc's loyalty to him).
His goals are admirable enough that he earns the fierce loyalty of his good friends Lt Col. Maes Hughes, Major Alex Louis Armstrong, and his own subordinates, among whom are Riza Hawkeye, Jean Havoc, Heymans Breda, Vato Falman, and Kain Fuery. While Mustang has a close and amicable relationship with all of his subordinates, he appears to share a deeper bond of affection with his second-in-command Riza Hawkeye, who has devoted her life to supporting him. This bond culminates in the final episodes of the show when Mustang chooses Hawkeye alone to accompany him on his greatest and most dangerous mission.
Though a hero of the Ishbal War, he remains haunted by the horrors of war and suffers great remorse for the lives he took. In the anime, these include the parents of Winry Rockbell, a childhood friend of the Elric Brothers.
[edit] 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. 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.
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.
When Hughes dies, Mustang is devastated by his friend's death. When forced to pursue the Elrics per military orders, 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). To counter this perceived threat against him, Bradley promotes Mustang to Brigadier General in preparation for his leading troops against armies in the north.
Although Bradley intends for him to die in combat (at Envy's hands), Mustang stays in Central (Havoc acts a decoy in Mustang's place), making his move to avenge Hughes's death. He succeeds in killing the Homunculus but only narrowly survives the ordeal. 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 him. As Mustang escapes the Führer's burning mansion, he is confronted by a manic Frank Archer, who shoots him. Hawkeye arrives in time to save him and kill Archer, though Mustang's confrontation with the Führer and Archer costs him his left eye.
[edit] Conqueror of Shamballa
In Conqueror of Shamballa, Mustang resigns from his rank to become just an ordinary enlisted man in a remote, almost arctic outpost. He has not used his alchemy since the end of the series, claiming he can still see the people he has killed in his blinded left eye. However, when Central is under attack by armies and airships, Mustang steps up and takes command, using his alchemy to defend Central (Havoc notes Mustang barks a lot of orders for an enlisted man). Mustang and Armstrong are able to create a hot-air balloon to reach the airships, and that is where he is reunited with the Elric brothers, and helps them gain entry into the airship.
[edit] Manga
The anime followed much of Roy's role in the manga during the early storyline. However, as the anime diverges from the original story, Roy's role and much of his background also differ.
Mustang first appears in Battle on the Train (chapter 4). He holds the rank of colonel and is stationed at Eastern Headquarters. Like in the anime, he is responsible for recruiting Edward Elric into the State Military. After Mustang heard about their prodigious abilities, he traveled to Resembool with Hawkeye to meet the Elrics. Horrified to discover that the boys have attempted a human transmutation, he confronts them at the Rockbells' home and then offers them the chance to become State Alchemists to find a way to restore their bodies.
Following Hughes' death, Mustang investigates the incident in secret despite the military closing the case after convicting Maria Ross. Trusting in Ross' innocence, and with the help of Barry the Chopper, Mustang uses his alchemy skills to fake Ross' death and engineer her escape from Amestris. After discovering that King Bradley is a Homunculus, he tries to expose him to the top echelons of the military, only to discover that they know his true nature but continue to support him. 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.
Mustang compares his struggle against the Fuhrer to a chess game, and says that his knight, pawn, rook, bishop and queen have been taken away, obviously referring to the fact that his trusted subordinates have been stationed elsewhere. In this analogy, logically, Roy must be the king piece, also given that his name in French means "king". However, it is unclear whether Arakawa intended for each chess piece to correspond with one of Roy's removed subordinates, or if she had referred to all the pieces in chess, being Roy's subordinates in general, being taken away collectively.
It is revealed that his playboy tactics used in order to cover his true intentions were inherited from Hawkeye's grandfather, General Grumman. This is an interesting follow up to Mustang's note of gratitude towards Grumman "I have learned a lot from you" before he left Eastern Headquarters. In chapter 62, when Roy visits "Madame Christmas", he mentions that "Elizabeth-chan has been taken by another man". While it has not been confirmed, this may be his way of referring to Hawkeye's being restationed, as her codename in chapter 37 was "Elizabeth" and she has recently been assigned to the Fuhrer as his personal aide. This subsequently leads to a contact between Mustang and General Grumman, who had left a hidden message inside the queen piece of the chess set he gave Mustang upon the latter's transfer to Central should Mustang need his help. He made contact through Madame Christmas, and meets General Grumman, which disguised as an old female.
In chapter 69, he is being contacted by Major General Olivia Armstrong, through an old flower-seller, after Roy declines her offer to buy flowers to wooing the lady (which assumed by the old lady to be his girlfriend who dumped him). To respond this, Roy decides to buy all flowers in the woman carts.
[edit] Past
The manga contains an extensive background story depicting Mustang during the Ishbal War.
In chapter 58 (Padding Footsteps of Destruction), Roy is said to have learned his elementary alchemy from Riza's father. In a flashback conversation, Roy is revealed to have become a State Alchemist in order to help the common people, despite the objection of his shishou (teacher). Upon hearing Roy's desire for power, his teacher states that he would pass his greatest and most powerful alchemy to Roy under the condition he would use it on the course of good. However, before he could elaborate, Roy's teacher began to choke from coughing up blood and manages only to reveal that he had passed all his secrets on to his daughter, and asked of Roy to look after her. The strange markings on Hawkeye's back is the method chosen by her father to pass these secrets on.
Like fellow State Alchemists, he was 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 Ishbalan. They were saved by a sniper, later revealed to be none other than Riza Hawkeye. Mustang continues through the war with a pessimistic view and considers himself to be a killer, unable to help people as he had previously hoped.
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 Fuhrer, 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. He orders Hawkeye to watch his back, and that if he ever strayed from the path of wanting to help people, of wanting to change the government, it was her role to shoot him.
[edit] Alchemy
A powerful alchemist in his own right, Mustang wears gloves with transmutation circles on them that are made of a material called "pyrotex/ignition cloth" that spark when he snaps his fingers. By adjusting the oxygen densities in the surrounding atmosphere through alchemy, he can create flames anywhere in the surrounding area at will and manipulate them as he desires.
During the Ishbal war, Mustang wore an incomplete Philosopher's Stone on a ring, which increased his flame power and allowed him to destroy entire city blocks in a single blast. He did not have a stone in the manga version of the war, and his alchemy was mainly used for clearing trenches and similar duties.
Mustang is often considered "useless" on rainy days because there is too much moisture in the air to create sparks. The fact is a running joke in the anime series, which usually involves Hawkeye tripping her superior and remarking that he should leave the fighting to others because his alchemy is usually useless when water is involved, thus making Mustang shocked and upset upon hearing this.
Another weakness of Mustang's alchemy is the need for a fairly open space. This last weakness was only revealed in the anime during Mustang's final confrontation with King Bradley where Mustang attempted to trap Bradley in a wine cellar. Bradley sneered that Mustang could not use his powerful flame alchemy in the enclosed space without risking killing himself. Mustang was eventually forced to use it anyway to avoid Bradley's sword strikes and blew an entire wall away, inflicting burns on himself.
In the manga, it is revealed that Mustang is not actually useless around water. His alchemy actually involves the splitting of water molecules in the air into the elements of hydrogen and oxygen. The sparks created by his gloves ignite the hydrogen (which is flammable) to create flames. In chapter 38, Mustang uses this ability to dissociate a large quantity of water into hydrogen and oxygen and uses Havoc's lighter to create a large explosion in an attempt to kill the homunculus Lust.
Techniques:
- Flame Burst: Roy snaps his fingers, causing an explosion of fire.
- Flame Blast: Roy sends out a ball of flames by snapping his fingers.
- Flame Barrage: Roy sends out a series of fire balls by snapping his fingers multiple times.
- Flame Pillars: Roy summons pillars of fire from the ground by snapping both of fingers pointing down and moving up.
- Flame Control: Roy touches the transmutation circle on his hand, causing any nearby fire to engulf the chosen target.
- Flame Dragon: Roy snaps his fingers, creating a dragon made of fire.
[edit] Voice Actor
| Japanese Cast[1] | English Cast[2] | Portuguese Cast[3] | French Cast | Spanish Cast[4] | Filipino Cast[5] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tōru Ōkawa | Travis Willingham | Hermes Baroli | Martial Leminoux | Rolman Bastidas | Bon Reyes |
[edit] Notes
- In the "Chibi Party" OVA, Roy is socially challenged and is disliked by Riza because he keeps leaving her behind in the movie. He is able to use his left eye even though at first it was covered by his patch.
- It is implied that Roy has romantic feelings for Riza given that when he tells her the world isn’t perfect, he then takes her hair in between his fingers and softly says that that is why it is beautiful. Many fans believe the underlying meaning to this is that Roy is telling Riza that it wasn't her fault that he was injured because no one is perfect, and that she is beautiful. This scene is only in the anime in episode 51, and the two are later shown at a marketplace together, smiling at one another. Although this is anime only, there is a manga scene where Riza believes Lust to have killed Roy, and proceeds to empty three cartridges of bullets into the homunculus, screaming "You bitch!", then collapses from grief. She is later reprimanded by Roy for this, as he tells her that she is that last person he expected to act like that, and that she must struggle to survive no matter what.
| Fullmetal Alchemist | |
|---|---|
| Common characters: | Edward Elric • Alphonse Elric • Roy Mustang • Maes Hughes • Winry Rockbell • Scar • Izumi Curtis • Hohenheim • Minor characters of Fullmetal Alchemist |
| Anime-only characters: | Dante • State Military • Homunculi • Minor anime characters |
| Manga-only characters: | Father • State Military • Homunculi • Ling Yao • Minor manga characters |
| Media: | Anime (Episode list • Voice casts) • Manga • OVAs • Conqueror of Shamballa • Video games (characters) • Trading cards |
| Items/Concepts: | Alchemy • Automail • Chimera • Equivalent Exchange • Gate of Alchemy • Philosopher's Stone • State Alchemist • Transmutation circle |
| Locations: | Amestris • Ishbal • Lab 5 • Lior |
