Fullmetal Analyst

THIS IS FANASTIC (and also, welcome to the fandom)

I had to drop everything I’m doing and search for the said panel HAHA

and it’s funny that Roy responded with “I’d go on a date with you anytime” lol situationship is situationshipping

I think their whole situation is… complicated. A favorite headcanon of mine is that there is no teenage love confession, just mutual pining. Roy’s more open in pursuing Riza but Riza just shrugs him away (thinks of it as a joke or because it would hamper their work). aside from fraternization laws they’re also scared of losing each other ? in a sense that if they risk a romantic relationship and it didn’t work, what comes next? especially since they’re basically codependent on each other

Noo why would I think about it? It's not like every High ranking military officials had that same decorative saber on their hip right? How Riza's role in Mustang's team probably means she will be around lots of military events and their formal dress codes which include said sabers too.

Definitely not thinking on how it's definitely NOT easy to just forget about being sliced on your throat and be able to do nothing as life bleeds out of you, forcing your fingers to stop trembling not wanting others to notice, because what if they deem your combat skills compromised? replace you with another? someone who wouldn't stumble mid-combat because the opponent pulled out a sword.

Also, I am truly. specifically. NOT thinking about how Roy being the only one who caught her reaction at first and knowing exactly why. Nope haha, why would I think about how he would stand in-between whoever military officials carrying a saber and his adjutant (he normally already stood between them since she's guarding his back, but leaning his body to cover whoever he spoke with is definitely not noticeable. Yep)

Oh! And how Roy would purposely forgot to bring his own decorative Saber to military events, basically never saw him actually use the thing really. Excusing himself with how the gloves are enough, he can just clap too now etc etc

             Riza undergoes a very complicated, very nuanced experience of processing the abuse she suffered, going from “willful” obedience, to tolerance, to reluctance, and finally to anger. She speaks reverently of her father’s work when she shows Roy her tattoo; she takes her duty very seriously for someone so young and who shouldn’t have been left in charge of such a heavy secret. She doesn’t start out hating Berthold, or she would have mentally signed off years ago and he would have died much sooner than he did. It takes a lot of nerve for a child to finally call parental abuse as they see it.

            But let’s go beyond her sense of duty with the tattoo. Did she even have anything else to remember her father by? A family picture? A letter? I think it’s important to look at this parallel to Ed and Al’s lack of memorabilia of their mother; they made the conscious choice to never look back when they burned down the house. But Riza? Riza has a tattoo of her father’s research. She’s left with something very impersonal and unsentimental and forcibly permanent. That speaks volumes of their relationship and should never be taken lightly.

also i love how in the manga they kinda draw roy like a homonculus in a way. they shadow his face and give him glowing eyes (which we see given to the homonculi quite often) to signify him losing his humanity in this.

also his eyes in these scenes lowkey give me chills. they look so much harsher than anything we've ever seen on him before. actually i think that this might be the first time we've seen his expression like this ever. and the manga really emphasizes that.

(Chapter 38 still)

Roy has to manipulate and control the spark from snap to target. Accounting for heat, other present gasses or fuel sources, and distance.

This is why we see Roy above use water to his advantage, but produce no useable flame when fighting Scar. In the fight with Scar Roy is either A) baiting himself knowing full well he can't produce flame and that Riza will protect him. B) absolutely forgot that the rain needed to be transmuted DIFFERENTLY.

I would say he likely forgot. MOST of his battle experience with his alchemy took place in a desert. Where dry hot air was readily available making his alchemy perfect for use in Ishval.

But this is what makes his alchemy so terrifying. He has the discipline to control a flame to the point of only boiling Envy’s eyeballs. Not Envy’s brain or hair too. Just the fluid in the eyes. But he also makes big bad explosions. 

And his speed…. He goes from big combustive blast to precision strike at a critical body part with maybe a second between. And the control degenerates into every snap is just raging burning fire. But that has more to do with emotional state than skill in that particular fight.

The fact of the matter is that Roy’s transmutation circle accounts for ALL four elements. (Yes I did look into this at the peak of my FMA hyperfixation.) Giving him the ability to tap into any and all fuel sources.

i'll add in my two cents as a chemist in progress and ex physics guy.

I interpreted flame alchemy as reforming the molecules in the air into useful compounds. Combustion in chemistry is a reaction between hydrocarbons and oxygen that produces CO2 and water, if the combustion is incomplete (there isn't enough oxygen), there will also be straight carbon produced, which is what smoke and soot are. He is most likely converting the molecules in the air into a hydrocarbon like methane, and combusting that using a spark from his gloves, he probably creates a small trail of concentrated fuel from his gloves to the site he wants to light on fire. He tries to obfuscate the way flame alchemy works so he probably lies and makes it a bit more showy (such as making it seem his spark travels further), to muddy the waters on how it actually works. Alchemy irl is a predecessor to chemistry. In FMA alchemists like the Elrics have been shown to be well-versed in the elements of the periodic table and think about things in terms of their base elements, which is what Mustang is doing here with the water, there is likely little difference between transmuting air and water to him, since he likely sees the world in terms of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. Normally air has water in it, and he likely at least in part gets some of the hydrogen he needs by splitting up the water molecules in the air, so liquid water wouldn't be too much of a stretch. I always interpreted his alchemy as simply taking available carbon, oxygen and hydrogen in the air, (or water in this case), and turning that into fuel and then oxygen to make it more explosive. Every environment is not the same, and he uses his alchemy to make it the same.

His limiting factor usually seems to be his ability to make a spark. He can't create a spark with wet gloves, which is why he was using Havok's lighter while killing Lust. Rain gets his gloves wet, AND when it's raining there's too many different things of varying concentrations he has to think about. Instead of a somewhat uniform atmosphere there's pockets of water between the air that move in difficult to predict ways, so he can't create his pockets of fuel as cleanly, and might over or under-estimate how much fuel he needs for the space. That runs the risk of lighting things on fire that he shouldn't, and he's pretty well-established to be excessively careful about what he lights on fire, so he wouldn't take that kind of risk. To make matters worse for him, it's more difficult to create a spark when there's high humidity (such as when it's raining) because of some things with the physics of static electricity.

(Chapter 38 still)

Roy has to manipulate and control the spark from snap to target. Accounting for heat, other present gasses or fuel sources, and distance.

This is why we see Roy above use water to his advantage, but produce no useable flame when fighting Scar. In the fight with Scar Roy is either A) baiting himself knowing full well he can't produce flame and that Riza will protect him. B) absolutely forgot that the rain needed to be transmuted DIFFERENTLY.

I would say he likely forgot. MOST of his battle experience with his alchemy took place in a desert. Where dry hot air was readily available making his alchemy perfect for use in Ishval.

But this is what makes his alchemy so terrifying. He has the discipline to control a flame to the point of only boiling Envy’s eyeballs. Not Envy’s brain or hair too. Just the fluid in the eyes. But he also makes big bad explosions. 

And his speed…. He goes from big combustive blast to precision strike at a critical body part with maybe a second between. And the control degenerates into every snap is just raging burning fire. But that has more to do with emotional state than skill in that particular fight.

The fact of the matter is that Roy’s transmutation circle accounts for ALL four elements. (Yes I did look into this at the peak of my FMA hyperfixation.) Giving him the ability to tap into any and all fuel sources.

There's a certain heaviness to Armstrong's expression.

In my life, I've had conversations with friends who have done horrible things to people around them, asked them why, tried to reconcile who I thought they were with what they did. Hoping that it was all pretend, but feeling the weight of life never being the same going forward.

That is what I see in Armstrong there. Maybe he doesn't believe it fully. Maybe he's suspended in air, not knowing what to think. Either way he's drinking in what Maria is saying, questioning her responses and trying to see her side as well as the official story.

And outside, when he hears Brosh's version - exactly the same story, there's a great relief:

The realisation that Maria is innocent after all -- oh, the relief!

But the military is turning Brosh away, refusing his testimony.

(I think that's meant to be 'premeditated', not 'premediated'.)

I love the shading on his face for the lower-right panel. He isn't in shade at all - it's the emotional simmering, gritted-teeth, protective side of him. Armstrong is a pot on a stove, not yet boiling, frothing, bubbling over, but those first little hints of heat are coming to the surface.

Huh. What did Grumman do? I have to assume he did some noteworthy things - as would have all the people getting promoted that far.

Because Ishval was in Grumman's region.

He didn't stay out of Ishval. Yes, there were Central-based generals doing a lot of work there in the flashbacks, but that is a period of a year-ish (order 3066 given in 1908) in a war that lasted for eight years (1901-1909)? And covered more than one region. I imagine there was a lot going on there that we didn't see.

Thinking about how FMA suggests that a change of heart doesn’t necessarily occur as a result of imprisonment. Many characters who change their ways do so not because they were in prison, but because they faced significant life challenges outside of it.

But the ones who were in prison are the ones who never change

And of course I’m connecting this to royai (lol) but does that mean the canon World will not allow royai to be courtmartialed after Roy becomes President-Führer? Like Dr. Marcoh who tries to reverse his wrongdoings by saving lives?

Canonically, the FMA world still imprisons those it catches breaking laws - the people above who haven't been imprisoned have simply escaped the law (Paninya and Yoki), or were protected from the law by their positions (Zampano and Jerso, as chimeras they're already military secret weapons, and were on Kimblee's special military mission which could be considered to give him - and them - immunity from the laws they broke).

We have to assume the justice system is rorted, right? Having 20 years of Bradley guiding who gets to set the laws and who gets to enforce them would do that. It's rorted in the sense of suiting a pro-militaristic agenda - so there would be rules that are reflected differently from how they operate in our world. Frat laws could be one of those, but also Arakawa pointing to the job as the reason Roy and Riza can't be together makes it seem that one wouldn't be it.

When Roy became Fuhrer, a relationship would mean whatever the Amestrian version of impeachment is, surely. Isn't that what happened with Bill Clinton regarding his interactions with Monica Lewinsky? And he continued to serve in power while she bore the brunt of public humiliation, damage to her career, and all the rest.

So Roy and Riza, with the military element ... Court-martialled, I don't know. Yeah, they'd probably not be jailed, because I don't think that specifically is a jailing offence, unless there was more on top of that (eg. Indications of not only breaking the frat rules, but of it being assault or a more abusive violation. Or favouritism that led to any financial crime or unearnt positions of power?)

Thinking about how FMA suggests that a change of heart doesn’t necessarily occur as a result of imprisonment. Many characters who change their ways do so not because they were in prison, but because they faced significant life challenges outside of it.

But the ones who were in prison are the ones who never change

And of course I’m connecting this to royai (lol) but does that mean the canon World will not allow royai to be courtmartialed after Roy becomes President-Führer? Like Dr. Marcoh who tries to reverse his wrongdoings by saving lives?