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jaebi_lit we have
Roy Mustang. My favorite male character in FMA. Where to start?
I'm going to preface this by saying that I am not a very big fan of the anime, which took a story as close to perfect as it could get and spoiled it in so many small but significant ways (and I'm talking four or five eps into the first season here, long before it catapulted itself into lala land). Thus, it should go without saying that anything I discuss below is manga-Roy unless otherwise noted.
First, the character design. I dig the fact that he's this broad shouldered, barrel chested, hefty guy. I like willowy character designs to a certain extent, but it's nice to see characters who aren't, too. I envision Roy as a slightly shorter than average stocky military guy who has a bit of a Napoleon complex due to the height.
I can already tell that a lot of this ramble is going to be about Hiromu Arakawa as much as Roy, but it's really impossible to separate the two, as so much of my reading of his character comes from the visual clues in the manga. The first two panels in which he ever appears tell so much about him. Confident and crafty. I don't know how anyone can make dots of ink on paper seem so alert, but boy does Arakawa ever do it with Roy's eyes. So that's my first take on Roy – alert, on top of things, self-assured.
You can't talk about Roy without talking about 'that scene,' but I'm going to depart from the norm and just say that he looks dayum good with his hair slicked back and I wish he'd do it more often.
Ahem. Moving on. Is Roy really a greasy status-climber or a loose cannon? Something of both, which is another one of the things I just love about Arakawa's story – it avoids falling into the cookie-cutter, black v. white template of so many other manga. Roy's both. He's a good enough person to risk a whole damn lot taking on the rotten system, but he's not your standard Cloud Strife Renegade character, either. He doesn't want to destroy the system. He wants it gutted and intact so that he can be the guy on the top. And once he's there? I imagine he'll be better than the current guy (cough, cough), but I imagine he'll be very good to his friends, too. That's cool, and a whole lot more realistic than the former character type, IMO.
My favorite Roy moment is probably the chapter when he wakes up in the archives, and heads to the men's room. There's just something about the five o'clock shadow and the disheveled clothing and the concealed mortification when he realizes Armstrong's in the room that is just very very real.
And anime Roy? Oh, I weep for what might have been. The plotline with him and the suicide and Winry's parents was melodramatic in the way Arakawa's manga avoids, and detracted a great deal from his character by taking the simple, obvious route. And that's just one example. It's such a shame, because the vocal talent for the anime was stellar, and I get all kinds of bummed when I realize I'm never going to see an anime adaptation of those amazing manga chapters.
And last of all, the name. Total. Porno. Name. You couldn't get a better porno name than Roy Mustang. Not even if you tried. That said, I have high hopes for Roy's survival through the series end (admitting I've not followed the manga for the past six chapters or so), because man, if any name ever hinted at 'successor to the 大総統' it's 'Roy.'
これで以上です。
jaebi_lit we have Roy Mustang. My favorite male character in FMA. Where to start?
I'm going to preface this by saying that I am not a very big fan of the anime, which took a story as close to perfect as it could get and spoiled it in so many small but significant ways (and I'm talking four or five eps into the first season here, long before it catapulted itself into lala land). Thus, it should go without saying that anything I discuss below is manga-Roy unless otherwise noted.
First, the character design. I dig the fact that he's this broad shouldered, barrel chested, hefty guy. I like willowy character designs to a certain extent, but it's nice to see characters who aren't, too. I envision Roy as a slightly shorter than average stocky military guy who has a bit of a Napoleon complex due to the height.
I can already tell that a lot of this ramble is going to be about Hiromu Arakawa as much as Roy, but it's really impossible to separate the two, as so much of my reading of his character comes from the visual clues in the manga. The first two panels in which he ever appears tell so much about him. Confident and crafty. I don't know how anyone can make dots of ink on paper seem so alert, but boy does Arakawa ever do it with Roy's eyes. So that's my first take on Roy – alert, on top of things, self-assured.
You can't talk about Roy without talking about 'that scene,' but I'm going to depart from the norm and just say that he looks dayum good with his hair slicked back and I wish he'd do it more often.
Ahem. Moving on. Is Roy really a greasy status-climber or a loose cannon? Something of both, which is another one of the things I just love about Arakawa's story – it avoids falling into the cookie-cutter, black v. white template of so many other manga. Roy's both. He's a good enough person to risk a whole damn lot taking on the rotten system, but he's not your standard Cloud Strife Renegade character, either. He doesn't want to destroy the system. He wants it gutted and intact so that he can be the guy on the top. And once he's there? I imagine he'll be better than the current guy (cough, cough), but I imagine he'll be very good to his friends, too. That's cool, and a whole lot more realistic than the former character type, IMO.
My favorite Roy moment is probably the chapter when he wakes up in the archives, and heads to the men's room. There's just something about the five o'clock shadow and the disheveled clothing and the concealed mortification when he realizes Armstrong's in the room that is just very very real.
And anime Roy? Oh, I weep for what might have been. The plotline with him and the suicide and Winry's parents was melodramatic in the way Arakawa's manga avoids, and detracted a great deal from his character by taking the simple, obvious route. And that's just one example. It's such a shame, because the vocal talent for the anime was stellar, and I get all kinds of bummed when I realize I'm never going to see an anime adaptation of those amazing manga chapters.
And last of all, the name. Total. Porno. Name. You couldn't get a better porno name than Roy Mustang. Not even if you tried. That said, I have high hopes for Roy's survival through the series end (admitting I've not followed the manga for the past six chapters or so), because man, if any name ever hinted at 'successor to the 大総統' it's 'Roy.'
これで以上です。
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From:
no subject
Hear you on the pragmatism and utter sexiness, but are you sure about the idealism? Ed strikes me as much more of a Do Good Because!type. Roy, OTOH, is someone who helps his friends and the people he's responsible for, but not necessarily anyone else. This is a guy who was pretty ruthless in the Ishbal war, after all. Which, in the real world, definitely gives him a better chance at survival than Ed, although Ed's much more the standard hero type.
From:
Oops - didn't catch this reply
OTOH, this is all fairly on in the series, and he's been forced to choose between selfish/selfless paths since then...
From:
no subject
That scene is that scene. With Hughes. Sort of. I'd like to go watch/read FMA right now too, only I'm at work.
Are you by any chance a Classics major? That was one of my main areas of study back in the day.
From:
Missed this one too...I suck.
I was recently thrilled to find cheap(ish) paperback editions of the Cambridge Latin Course textbooks at B&Ns over Christmas. Ah, the nostalgia!
From:
no subject
Manga chapters 50-56 (scanslated) (http://www.megaupload.com/jp/?d=SHN1ZUBB)
Happy belated birthday!