Your meta post was so interesting, I never picked up on the first line of dialogue and I’m curious if you have more thoughts on the ideological differences you mentioned!

thank you and of course! in reference to this post, first a disclaimer that im going off of a particular translation of the manga available online so other versions may have a different line of dialogue that could change the meaning. beyond that, i think it’s primarily really interesting either way you interpret the line.

a) roy desperately wants to kill envy without riza’s interference and appeals to her guilt to get her to stand down. he would know better than anyone how much she wants to avoid killing or causing more harm, so it’s a good strategy. it is kind of cynical to view him as casually manipulative like that, but i don’t think it’s unrealistic either. we know he is capable of lashing out in anger or frustration, and this is the climax of all the emotional turmoil he’s faced in the series. it does make me wonder if riza would have viewed things this way and whether how much this incident comes up for them in the future

b) roy genuinely doesn’t want to let riza kill anyone or anything out of his own guilt and knowledge that killing would “dirty [her] hands” and this is part of his motivation in killing envy himself. we know that they avoided killing as much as possible, only injuring the soldiers loyal to central command rather than inflicting mass fatalities. clearly killing is a moral issue for them both, but riza demonstrates her willingness to do so when necessary (however it’s more likely she viewed killing envy as necessary because of the threat they presented rather than as suitable justice for killing hughes). what i find particularly interesting though is that if roy really believes killing envy puts more blood on one’s hands, he views the homunculi as having the same moral right to exist as humans. but after killing lust in the same excruciating manner, he shows no remorse. so, he is blatantly more concerned about riza’s moral standing than his own because he sees her as the moral paragon in his life. putting her in that position and allowing her to shoot him if necessary is exactly why she won’t let him continue. it’s an interesting entanglement of his interests and belief system, wherein if riza actually stood by and allowed him to torture envy to save herself the responsibility, she would not be fit to serve as his conscience and it would be less relevant whether she dirtied her hands or not. im not sure if that’s all coming across very clearly, but i just think it’s interesting when you can really dig into how roy views riza

i would assume his real intention is a bit of both—a genuine feeling and belief that comes out easily as a dismissal to justify his wrath. im curious if anyone else would interpret things differently though!