#there always was something that didn't click right foe me about the Psyren episode and I think I finally figured it out

[tetitous]

Looking back on it, I believe Psyren in FMA 2003 is a narrative foil to 2 characters : Roy and Sloth. I'll mostly focus on Roy because that's really the parallel that talked to me the most.

I mean, once you think back on it, Psyren being a narrative foil to Sloth almost feels obvious : Alphonse immediately compares her to his mom, and immediately assumes she can do no wrong based on that first impression. That, plus her alchemy is heavily water-based.

But speaking of water, now onto fire: why Roy?

Well, Roy appears to the Elric brothers as an adult who is always one step above them. Almost immediately Edward shifts from admirative and respectful of him to doubtful and hostile after feeling like he was used once. A sort of rivalry gets established between the two. What's more, both Roy and Psyren are heavily associated with seductiveness, which in the 2003 version, is as much of a truth as it is a mask they wield to fool the people who underestimate them.

Most importantly though, is their goal: they both play cat and mouse with Edward, but also genuinely seem to want to help him. They both treat him half like a child, half like an adult, and tend to leave him extremely confused. Ed doesn't really seem to know for sure what to do with either of them.

But then, what does that parallel serve? Well I think Psyren makes it pretty clear: "what you think to be true of this character isn't necessarily so."

What is Psyren's goal? It is not to steal to gain money for herself, or to steal just to save a few establishment who might collapse in a few months. It's never made perfectly clear if her goal is actually the one stated, but it seems that she wants to give her dying city a few last moments of glory before it completely sinks into oblivion. The city WILL die, mind you, there is no stopping that, but she makes it go like a dying star : like a bright light everyone can see rather than a dull flicker no one noticed. She makes her city something to be remembered.

And accordingly, Roy's goal is not as obvious as it seems at first. He definetly tries to gain rank and power in the military, but why does it do it? To change the female uniform? That's obviously a stupid reason to want to go to the top. And why does he help Ed and Al ? Is it just for personal game? To be able to use them in need?

No. All he does, he does because of what happened in Ishbal. He wants to make sure something like it never happen again. Or does he? No, what he does is to give himself a justification for still being alive, to give meaning to the meaningless deaths he caused. It's both completely selfish and selfless at once. And the reason he helps Ed and Al? It's not about them, it's about the Rockbells, it's about Winry who he made an orphan. By helping the brothers he tries to correct that injustice he's responsible for. Or is it? Isn't it just because once he got to the door of their house, ready to take the blow of anything that gets thrown back at him, he instead faltered ? And that he still needed an excuse to be there?