Let’s meet the cool leader, Roy Mustang from Full Metal Alchemist

“You can call me Roy Mustang, or just Lieutenant colonel. Hell, you can call me the Flame Alchemist, whatever you do remember the pain”. These are the words from Amestris’ military’s Colonel Roy Mustang. He is a character that you can’t simply sum up in a few sentences. He’s got a complex moral system, is a powerhouse, a playful manipulator, incredibly cool, a cunning tactician, and for sure outwardly arrogant. Roy Mustang comes in the list of the best-written anime characters of all time.

The word ‘Roy’ in his name means ‘King’ and the word ‘Mustang’ is used to pay tribute to the WW-II prestigious fighter plane, P-51. Unlike the main protagonist of the story (Full Metal Alchemist), Edward, he wasn’t introduced to us as his actual self at the very beginning, rather we expected him to be a ruthless careerist and a womanizer. But as the story progressed we started to capture him more on the screen and soon witnessed his daunting character complexity.

The scene used to introduce him was one of the coolest in the list of such scenes. Elric and Coe were unable to take down this one villain but Mustang came and blew him away with a single snap of his finger. His signature fighting move acts like a magnet attracting all sorts of fans all over the world. His sharp character design and badass fight sequences help him to become one of the most iconic characters in shonen history.

Although Roy Mustang always looks tidy and of course boring, these are his hair that speaks for him. Their shabby and tidy look represents a different mood. He sometimes unknowingly works as comedic relief as well. While sometimes willingly perform some laughable jobs such as the bouquet incident with Olivier. Moreover, he believes “When your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him.”

Mustang is called Hono no Renkinjutsushi or Flame alchemist for his potential to generate fire with alchemy. He can strike his opponents with these fireballs and with great precision. His left hand is for such precise strikes while the right one is for powerful great attacks. These attacks are multidirectional and can boil someone’s eyeballs if intended.

His complicated past acts as a source of both motivation and prison for him. He said, “My queen, my bishop, my rook, my knight, my pawn has been taken, but I still haven’t been checkmated just yet.” He was so angered with how he was used in the Ishbal civil war that he became determined to become the country’s leader. No one can cease his passion, the quest for the top.

With so much going in his head Roy Mustang always proves to be a cool and composed leader. He always maintains his cool, even in battle, these triads helped him kiss the mountain peak of all.