Fullmetal Alchemist Almost Rewrote Roy Mustang’s Destiny — And Fans Still Can’t Agree
Fullmetal Alchemist nearly sent Roy Mustang down a very different road—and that fork still splits the fandom. Creator Hiromu Arakawa embraced discomfort over neat closure in a 2021 Bessatsu Shonen Magazine interview, leaving Mustang’s fate deliberately unsettled.
I get why people argue about Roy Mustang. On paper, he looks built for a triumphant finale. In practice, Hiromu Arakawa never lets him off the hook. She made a choice that is less victory lap and more living with the mess you made. And yeah, that was on purpose.
The fork Arakawa almost took
In a 2021 interview with Bessatsu Shonen Magazine (as relayed by Otaquest), Arakawa said Mustang was one of the toughest endgame calls in Fullmetal Alchemist. She seriously weighed two extremes: drop the hammer on him completely or hand him emotional closure. She chose neither. His story, as she frames it, is not about winning, smiling, or being forgiven. It is about what comes after you know you helped light the match, and whether carrying that truth is its own sentence.
Atonement, not redemption
Mustang does not get a classic shonen redemption arc. Edward and Alphonse screw up because of grief and love; Mustang commits atrocities by following orders. He put on the uniform. He did what the chain demanded. The series never lets him forget it, and he does not ask for forgiveness.
'We know this will not erase our sins, but it is not too late to fix things.'
Hawkeye puts their mission in plain terms. After Ishval, Mustang aims to climb the rotten system, dismantle the military state from the inside, and make sure the people responsible for genocide - including himself - face accountability. That mindset is the spine of his ending.
Where he actually ends up
By the final chapter, Mustang is not Fuhrer, Amestris is not a democracy, and there is no confetti in the streets. He starts small and hard: push to end the occupation of Ishval, help survivors return, and dedicate himself to rebuilding what he helped break. The work continues not because he has been redeemed, but because stopping would be the real moral failure.
Why it still divides fans
Fullmetal Alchemist loves the idea of equivalent exchange, but it also admits some debts will never balance out. An Ishvalan he killed tells him straight up that forgiveness is not coming, and the story treats that as a fact, not cruelty. It is the show at its most honest: sometimes you do not get closure. You just do the work anyway.
The cruel eye irony, and why it matters
Mustang loses his sight after opening the Gate of Truth - the man obsessed with a grand vision is literally blinded. It is poetic, but the series refuses to treat pain as justice. Dr. Marcoh offers to use a Philosopher's Stone to restore Mustang's eyesight because he wants Roy helping Ishval to the best of his ability. Translation: suffering alone accomplishes nothing.
That last image of him with Hawkeye says the rest: no big grin, no big speech, just two people staring down years of work. Arakawa has confirmed that uncertainty was the point. His future is open because his ledger is not closed.
Quick refresher: Brotherhood in a nutshell
- Title: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Manga author: Hiromu Arakawa
- Anime studio: Bones
- Original run: April 5, 2009 - July 4, 2010
- Total episodes: 64
- IMDb rating: 9.1/10
- Where to watch: Crunchyroll
So no, Mustang does not get the neat, crowd-pleasing wrap-up. He gets the ending this story demands. And that lingering discomfort is exactly why we are still talking about him. Was that fair, or should Arakawa have pushed him further? Tell me where you land.