roy mustang is everything i love in a character: he is decided Not Morally Good, but really trapped by that guilt, he is obsessively ambitious, and dangerously loyal to his friends
what sells me on roy as a character whenever i watch or even just think about FMA is the fact taht roy is the mix or roy's optimism and realism. he's the man that kills hundreds of innocents yet still believes that if he goes up the ranks of the military that he will be able to change it from the inside. even after amnestris is exposed as a militarys tate built for the sake of human sacrifice, he still tries. i can't say i agree with this line of thought in the slightest, but god DAMN if it doesn't make for an incredibly interesting character.
kinda going off of that there's a real sense of roy's personal investment in his friends. his entire motivation at the start is to avenge hughes' death. so much of what he does is meant to be in defense of riza, to keep her and the rest of the mustang squad safe. and yet even despite that he doesn't really hesitate to take someone else's life. roy is a very single minded individual, in my opinion, and the sense of a 'greater good' outweighs the deaths of innocents but his friends and loved ones are always the most important
i really like that intentionally or not, arakawa is leaving us to question whether or not roy actually would be a good fuhrer. because honestly i can't sit here and look at how roy behaves and think that he should be the leader of the country. he's certainly better than bradley but god if that isn't a low fucking bar. like i do genuinely think that roy will bring democracy to amnestris but in terms of rebuilding trust, repairing things, i don't know if he is that guy. and i think arakawa giving the fuhrer title to grumman first is the indication of that.
also not to go too deep down the royai rabbit hole because i will just shrine them at some point, i think riza is the counter to roy. she's the one that reminds him of his humanity, but also reminds him when he needs the be the solider and the commanding officer in the room. i also think that their dynamic is just....it's perfect. idk what else to say except these two are so desperately in love with each other and so unable to do anything about it
in a lot of ways, roy is a character that feels like he should be easy to understand: upstart talented leader looking to take over. but when you actually break down his motivations and why he does what he does, it becomes a whole tangle of feelings, drive, guilt, shame, etc. that makes him one of the more interesting characters in the series. we spend so much time in ed and al's heads, understanding their thought processes, but i feel like we spend so little with roy. he's an enigma and fascinating because of it.
so one of the things i find most interesting about FMA as a series is the way that the seven deadly sins are directly linked to people, and we see our main characters grapple with the embodiment of those sins
i think this is especially true for roy, who falls most under wrath. unsurprisingly, bradley being wrath and the fuhrer, and roy's aims to become furher, that connection is pretty evident. but i also think we see the moment where roy gives into that sin gif to the left, gives into becoming a monster, and then we see him be pulled back. and that being pulled back is ultimately what is far more important. he's able to still retain his humanity.
also i know there's an argument to be made for roy embodying pride as well, but honestly i see that much more in line with ed (and yes it doesn't need to be one sin per one character BUT its not an unuseful simplification)
i remember watching fma for the first time and genuinely thinking roy mustang was this like womanizer and im baffled i ever thought that. he's not some skeevy pervert, he plays the part of one well though. no, he's really just using it as a cover for what he is really after
also not to drill home the whole 'royai is canon in every way but confirmed' but....that too