#I just get annoyed bc I feel like Hughes is interpreted as this perfect guy

[clonerightsagenda]

I rag on Maes Hughes for being chill with genocide but to be *entirely* fair upon a reread, it's not like he's loving it, he's just not particularly haunted by it either. Roy rants about how this is a betrayal of how he joined the military to protect people (mistake number one, dude, seriously) and Maes calls him naive. His reason for fighting is to stay alive. While Roy talks about his dreams of a better future, Maes refers to letters from his girlfriend as his brighter future. He's willing to support Roy's ambitions because Roy's his friend, but he thinks they're childish.

The impression I get is that Hughes has decided he can tolerate atrocities as long as he stays alive and can go home to his loving family, so he leans into that loving family really hard. That's his reward. That's what makes it worth it. Which adds a layer to Envy killing him while disguised as his wife. You can't hold those things separate. If you're a collaborator propping up an awful regime, your family (and you) will still eventually become its victims. The rot at the heart of the nation is wearing your loved one's face.

#one could extrapolate here that his insistence on Roy getting a wife #is also going 'hey why don't you give up your grand ideals and just settle like I did' #don't think there's a super solid case for that but not necessarily AGAINST it either #kat reads fma #this post kind of sounds like I am defending Roy so let me be clear #I would like to Fight him #I just get annoyed bc I feel like Hughes is interpreted as this perfect guy #why this