Maes Hughes

Rectangular glasses sit over Hughes' hazel eyes, and a narrow strip of unkempt beard traces his jaw. His frame is lanky and fairly tall, and he wears the military uniform sharply while his black hair rises into a spiky forelock that reads as his signature. The 2003 adaptation tinted that hair with a greenish cast, close to the shade given to Envy, which suggests it may have been intended as a dark green.

On the surface Hughes is warm, talkative, and relentlessly upbeat, so much so that his closest friends find him grating. He drops into serious discussions uninvited, dodges his piling paperwork just to chat, and refuses to take a refusal for an answer, physically dragging people off toward a job offer or a spare bed and earning the Elric brothers' nickname of kidnapper. His defining trait is his worship of his wife Gracia and their toddler Elicia; he keeps their photos on hand at all times, thrusts them at anyone nearby, and constantly badgers Roy and Edward to marry soon.

Beneath the clowning sits a shrewd, dependable officer and Ishval veteran who reads a situation quickly, notices trouble before others do, and stays composed around corpses or lethal force. That buoyant front partly guards him and the people he loves against the grim side of his profession. As a realist he accepts that some problems cannot be settled cleanly, yet he keeps a genuine fondness for idealists like Mustang and willingly shoulders the darkness so they can build a better world, dispensing genuine wisdom to everyone he folds into his extended family.

Placed in the Investigations Division for his analytical mind, Hughes untangles much of the underlying conspiracy within days, arriving at a secret it takes the alchemist prodigies far longer to reach despite their genius. His bond with Mustang dates to their academy years, and he pledges to rise beneath his friend to push him toward the top, feeding Roy tips through phone calls and unannounced visits. He is generous toward the Elrics, hosting them, coaxing details out of Edward, and treating Winry and his subordinate Sheska like kin. Though he leans on police work over combat, his war record makes him lethal, and he keeps several concealed push knives ready.

Digging too deep marks him for death. Envy turns his family obsession against him, takes the shape of Gracia, and shoots him after he hesitates to strike what looks like his wife. Even badly wounded he slips his pursuers and nearly relays his warning without any treatment. Killed at twenty-nine, he is promoted two grades to Brigadier General, and the loss drives Mustang, along with Sheska in the 2003 telling, to chase down the truth behind the killing.