What's there to say about Roy Mustang?

SPOILERS - he's the best. (But seriously, spoilers are throughout, especially towards the end)

He's been a favorite for about 10 years now and when it comes down to WHY he's a favorite, I'm at a loss as to where to begin or even which verse I should talk about, because while it's the same character in both series + manga, he goes through different experiences, which thus, forms his character in different aspects.

Ultimately, what I love most about Roy is his unwavering loyalty for his friends. He has one of my favorite friendships with the ever amazing Maes Hughes, who also makes the list for a post about him somewhere down the line, but he also has a great team behind him to help support him to get him to the top.

I love how ambitious he is. Starting out as a soldier, even though soldiers who specialize in alchemy, especially the sort of alchemy this guy can do, doesn't necessarily mean he has no rank... I'm pretty sure state alchemists are granted a much higher starting rank than regular soldiers, but I don't know for sure what level they start as. Regardless, he starts out in Ishbal/Ishval and things go to hell - Roy gets what appears to be his first taste of what war really means. This comes in the shape of following difficult orders and augmenting the war by his own hands.

This affects Roy in two ways, depending on which series you watch, but Roy decides that he's going to work his way up the chain of command in order to change the country, so that orders like the ones he had to carry out in Ishbal/Ishval never happen again. So that people like Ed, who join the military at such a young age, never have to stain their hands the way he's had to. Roy has such great vision for the country and the determination to see it through.

You can tell a lot about a character by their relationships and how they treat those relationships. Roy has complete faith in his team and treats each of them as the important people they are. As awesome as Roy is, you can't play a game of chess with only a king and expect to win or get anywhere. The camaraderie within Team Mustang is one of my absolute favorite things about FMA - there aren't enough words to fully describe how perfect it is, unless you see it, which is why in FMA, my favorite episodes are usually centered around Team Mustang or Roy/Ed - a surprise to absolutely no one.

Sometimes Roy's actions are misinterpreted - he acts as the bad guy in order to get things done. An example being in Brotherhood when he scorches Maria Ross after learning she murdered someone important to him and Ed finds her corpse + Roy standing over it and Ed yells at him, because how could he do this when it's obvious she didn't do anything. To which Roy responds by saying, "he's just following orders," which obviously upsets Ed even more. You learn later on that he didn't actually kill Maria, but rather provided her the means to disappear, so she wouldn't HAVE to be killed.

Roy takes the fall for the people he cares about. He gets the military off the Elrics' tail when they come looking for them in Risembool after they had ran away from the Liore/Philosopher's Stone incident. Let's think about this for a second. Roy is a significant player in the military - he's the flame alchemist, but he's also high in ranks. He's the one who FOUND Ed right after the whole human transmutation happened and told him to take the state exam, so you would think the military would account for him covering for Ed when Ed & Al are trying to recoup. Roy goes to the train station where the military has just arrived and we're shown a soundless scene with Roy arguing with the military personnel. You can see that he's trying his hardest, but the military doesn't leave until Roy bows in a sign of begging them to turn around/go elsewhere.

Roy. Fucking. Mustang. BOWED to people who were most likely below him in rank in order to protect the Elric brothers.

He bows to no one -  he doesn't even show his fear as he confronts Bradley about him being a homunculus; you can only SEE his fear when he exits the room - but when it comes to people he cares about, he doesn't hold back and will resort to anything in order to protect them - the Lustang scene and the Roy/Envy scene, especially, being great examples of how far he's willing to go in Brotherhood.

This is barely skimming the surface, but his devotion to his country & his friends is my #1 reason for loving him. The only way I would ever serve in the military would be if I was guaranteed to have a leader like Mustang to follow, because I believe he exemplifies all that's necessary to be a good leader.

Also, because his voice and entire being is attractive like whoa ;)