About

Roy is said to have learned his elementary alchemy from Riza Hawkeye's father. During his teen years, he met his late best friend Maes Hughes in a military training school facility. In a flashback conversation, Roy is revealed to have become a State Alchemist in order to help the common people, despite the objection of his teacher. Upon hearing Roy's desire for power, his teacher states that he would pass his greatest and most powerful alchemy to Roy under the condition he would use it on the course of good. However, before he could elaborate, Roy's teacher began to choke from coughing up blood and manages only to reveal that he had passed all his secrets on to his daughter, and asked of Roy to look after her. The strange markings on Hawkeye's back is the method chosen by her father to pass these secrets on.

Like fellow State Alchemists, he was sent to completely raze a region Amestris was unable to subdue. It seems that he was 23 at that time (volume 2 and bonus in volume 4). He runs into Maes Hughes and they reminisce briefly about the past and discuss the State's involvement in the War before they are ambushed by an injured Ishvalan. They were saved by a sniper, later revealed to be none other than Riza Hawkeye. Mustang continues through the war with a pessimistic view and considers himself to be a killer, unable to help people as he had previously hoped.

However, Mustang discovers that while he thought he was alone in the war, simply murdering people, he was saving the lives of the men in his unit. This new idea appears to spur him into making an attempt to become the Führer, which he explains to Hughes at the end of the war. He then surrounds himself with people he knows he can trust; Hughes, Fuery, Falman, Havoc, Breda, and lastly Hawkeye. He orders Hawkeye to watch his back, and that if he ever strayed from the path of wanting to help people, of wanting to change the government, it was her role to shoot him.
Outwardly arrogant and playfully manipulative, Mustang is intelligent and adaptable. These traits usually ensure that he is always one step ahead of his opponents. He also likes to feel in control of the situation. He is one of the superiors of Edward Elric. At the beginning of the series, he appears to be nothing more than a ruthless careerist and a shameless womanizer. However, he is eventually shown to be a rather paternal commander who greatly cares for the emotional and physical well-being of his men. He's even endangering his life-long goal to become Führer of Amestris, to avenge his best friend's Maes's untimely death. This earns him the fierce loyalty of his friends (Hughes, Hawkeye, Armstrong) and subordinates (Jean Havoc, Vato Falman, Kain Fuery, Heymans Breda). He also feels obligated to look out for the Elric Brothers after they become fellow "dogs of the military". This stems from his experience in the Ishbal War (referred to as the Ishbal Massacre) where he was forced to kill with his flame alchemy and an incomplete philosopher's stone despite learning it to help people. After the war ended, however, his fellow soldiers thanked him for saving their lives. Mustang resolves to protect his subordinates and feels personally responsible for their well being, placing their safety above his own. Though a hero of the Ishbal War, he remains haunted by the horrors of war and suffers great remorse for the lives of civilians he took.


Roy's Transmutation CircleA 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 create sparks or 'flames' when he rubs his fingers together. By adjusting the oxygen densities in the surrounding atmosphere through alchemy, he can create flames anywhere in the surrounding area at will and manipulate them as he desires. While oxygen, by itself, cannot combust, it is assumed that he makes use of the more flammable gases found in the atmosphere such as hydrogen. This assumption is verified in the manga, where it is revealed that it is indeed hydrogen that is burned. The 'snap' sound is because of how quickly the hydrogen and oxygen react together and pop (not his fingers actually 'snapping', to common belief.)

Mustang is often considered "useless" on rainy days because when his ignition cloth gloves are wet they cannot create sparks. This fact came up at two points in the anime series, first in a humorous moment in the battle against Scar ("The Ishbal Massacre") where Hawkeye tripped her comrade and remarked that he should leave the fighting to others because his alchemy is useless in the rain.

However, the manga goes into further depth regarding the relationship between Mustang's alchemy and water. His alchemy is actually achieved by using the transmutation circle on his gloves to split water molecules in the air.

Roy Mustang

Alias Lieutenant Colonol Mustang(episodes 3- cool Lieutenant · · · Colonol Mustang(through most of the series) · · · Brigadier General Mustang(episodes 45-51) Brigadier · · · Flame Alchemist Race Human
Gender Male Age 29 years old(source: 4th volume of the manga) 29 years old(source: Hair Black Eyes Bluish-black)
Height 5'8"(source: height chart) 173 cm(source: height chart)
Weight
Status Colonel in the military Quote "I will be Fuhrer someday!"
Voice Travis Willingham