howdy

So, part the reason I like her so much is because she starts off as this no-nonsense badass but as you learn more and more about her you get to see exactly how broken but genuinely sweet she really is. Similarly, while her relationship with Roy originally seems another woman looking after her love interest like he’s actually her child the story shows us exactly how deep and important that relationship actually is, and how Roy does as much for Riza and she does for him.

We first see this when Lust tells her Roy is dead in the 5th laboratory, and it’s one of the most disturbing scenes in the show. You have Riza Hawkeye, who’s known for being deadpan and keeping a cool head no matter what, completely lose it. She screams, she cries, she misses her shots, and then she completely gives up and accepts the fact that she’s going to die. It’s incredibly jarring. Hawkeye isn’t the sort of person you expect to see desperate, helpless or broken. Seeing her snap like that is just heart wrenching.

In that same episode you also see why so she’s so loyal to Roy. Not only is he badass and master strategist, he’s also a good person despite his flaws, and he’s determined to protect the people he loves at any cost.

But people are honestly always talking about her in relation to Roy, and while their relationship is great, I want to talk about the other man that she loves more then life itself:

Riza having a dog definitely serves to humanize her. Because I think everyone can relate to loving a dog at some point in their life. But with Black Hayate you also see how sweet and compassionate Riza is. In the manga, you see that she adopted him off the streets. It’s adorable.

On a less adorable note, we finally get to see what happened in Ishval and more of Riza’s past. Which is downright awful. Raised by a father who was neglectful at best, Roy was one of the few people who was ever kind to her. She can’t help but admire his dream to change the country for better. Not just admire it either. Riza doesn’t just love Roy, she loves his desire to change the world for better. That’s actually why she loves him. And it’s because of his idealism that she trusts him with the secret of flame alchemy (which her wonderful father tattooed on her back).

But then comes Ishval, and their dreams and any remaining innocence on their part is shattered. She finds herself murdering her own citizens in more or less cold blood. But that’s not the worst of it. Because Roy is also killing, on an even larger scale. And he’s doing it with the weapon she gave him. What she thought would help him change the world for better ended up instead helping him kill hundreds of innocent people.

So we get the most painful scene in the show, when she begs Roy to burn off her tattoo so no one else can become like him.

But because Roy loves her, he does it. And this something I find interesting about their relationship. It’s completely selfless. As twisted as it might sound, Roy burned her because he knew that it was what she wanted. No matter how much it hurt him, no matter how much he hated it, he knew that the physical pain of the burn would be nothing compared to psychological toll of carrying that secret.

I know I said people talk too much about Riza’s relationship with Roy, but they’re character arcs are completely entwined so it’s hard not too. It’s easily my favorite fictional relationship: two broken people who selflessly love and support one another. She does follow him into hell, and the only reason he dares to go there in first place is because he’s knows she has his back.

That selfless love, doing what the other would want, no matter how much it hurts them both, is what keeps them both on track. And throughout the show, people keep on making the mistake of thinking she’s his weak spot, because he loves her and that’s an easy thing to exploit. But because their love is selfless, she actually makes it impossible for Roy to be exploited at all.

We see this with his battle with Envy. Riza will kill him if he becomes evil, because she loves him enough to know that’s what he wants. And he loves her enough that it’s not the thought of his own death that makes him back up—it’s the realization that she’ll follow him afterwards.

And, of course on the Promise Day he refuses to commit human Transmutation to save her life, because he knows she doesn’t want him to. I love this scene so much. He says “I’ll do it.” causing the villains (and the audience) to think he’s going to transmute her, but no, he’s telling Riza he’ll do what she wants him to. He’s not even bothering to talk to the villains, he’s reassuring her that he won’t let her be the person who ends the world.

ANYWAY, I think I got on a tangent about how much I love Royai (again). My point is, Riza has had an awful life, she’s a broken, screwed up person. But she finds someone and something to love. She and Roy are bounded together by a dream of making the world a better place, and not even Ishval could destroy that. Her selfless love for that dream and Roy himself gives her hope again. She’s not the stone cold badass she pretends to be, anymore then Roy is a petty playboy. She has depression and PTSD and she struggles with both. But she has someone to support her and vice versa. And together, they’re practically unstoppable.