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Fullmetal Alchemist Anime Info

Character Bios: Roy Mustang

A colonel in the military with a dark past. He has a cool demeanor that reflects in his generally lazy face. He is skilled at using alchemy involving controlling flames.

He is the State Alchemist in charge of watching over Edward Elric.

Currently, his goal is the control of the military.
-Kenshin Eternal

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Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, was the man who first recognized the Elric brothers' talent and recruited Edward Elric to become a State Alchemist. At the time of his introduction in the anime, Mustang held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was stationed at Central, although he was soon transferred to the Eastern Territories to clean up Lieutenant Yoki's mess. He was a hero of the Ishbal War, but he remains haunted by the horrors of war and suffers great remorse for the lives he took, among whom are the parents of Winry Rockbell, childhood friend of the Elric Brothers. (In the manga, the Rockbells were not killed by Mustang.)
Outwardly arrogant and playfully manipulative, Mustang is a very smart character who is always one step ahead. We see Mustang's scheming ways at work when he devises a situation to allow Edward to take the State Alchemist examination, which would have otherwise been impossible as Edward is only a child. While perceived as a glory hog who doggedly pursues promotions and praise, his true goal is to become Führer, and to reform the government, in order to absolve his sins in the Ishbal War. His goals are admirable enough that he earns the fierce loyalty of both Armstrong and his own subordinates, among whom are Hawkeye, Havoc, Breda, Fuery, Falman, and his buddy Maes Hughes. While Mustang is an unapologetic womanizer who is known to steal women from Havoc, he has an unspoken but smoldering tension with his subordinate Riza Hawkeye.

When Hughes died, Mustang was devastated by his friend's death. When forced to pursue the Elrics per military orders, Mustang learns that King Bradley is a Homunculus, and tries to expose him to the top brass of military by revealing the truth about the Furhrer's secretary, Juliet Douglas. However, Bradley promoted Mustang to Brigadier General in preparation for his leading troops against armies in the north. Although Bradley intended for him to die in combat, Mustang snuck back into Central, making his move for avenging Hughes' death. He suceeded in killing King Bradley (a.k.a. homonculus Pride), narrowly surviving the ordeal. He loses his left eye, and it is presumed that this injury was sustained when he was shot by automail-Archer. However, some ambiguity in the scene spawned the theory that Riza Hawkeye may have accidentally shot him instead (this theory does add an extra level of depth to the pair's conversation during the final episode of the series).

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 sparks when he snaps his fingers. By adjusting the oxygen content in the surrounding atmosphere through alchemy, he can create flames anywhere in the surrounding area at will and manipulate them as he desires. Amusingly, because of this, he is considered "useless" on rainy days. 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.
-divinedragonking