Who Killed Winry's Parents? (And Why That Matters)

 Who Killed Winry’s Parents

One major difference between the 2003 FMA and Mangahood (it’s easier to say “Mangahood” than “Brotherhood and the manga”) is who killed Winry’s parents. In Mangahood, Scar killed Winry’s parents. In the 2003 version, it’s Roy Mustang. I’m not a fan of this change in the 2003 version for several reasons:

1. The 2003 version treats the deaths of the Rockbells as a more heinous crime than the genocide of the Ishvalans: There are two episodes in the 2003 version of FMA (episodes 15 & 43) that talk about Mustang killing Winry’s parents. In both episodes, it’s made abundantly clear that Mustang tries to commit suicide directly after killing the Rockbells. In episode 43 Mustang brings up why he wanted to become the Fuhrer:

“I got my orders in the morning, and I shot them that night. Afterwards I tried to kill myself, but I was too much of a coward so I took an oath instead: To never follow unreasonable commands again, to reach a position where I wouldn’t have to follow them.”

There’s a couple of problems that I have about this being Roy’s motivation:

             (1) If he didn’t want to follow “unreasonable commands” then why did he join the military to begin with? Sure, Mangahood Mustang was also naive about this point, but at least Mangahood had the decency to call him out on it through Kimblee.

           (2) If he really was so determined to not follow “unreasonable commands” then why didn’t he just resign after the end of the Ishval War? He wouldn’t have needed to follow such orders as a civilian. It seems like continuing to be in the military would put him at risk of breaking his oath. 

This speech makes it obvious to me that Roy was far more affected by the deaths of the Rockbells than he was by the deaths of the Ishvalans. To his credit, we do see him hallucinating an Ishvalan during the episode where he fights Ed (in episode 13). That being said, it’s obvious that he found the Rockbell deaths more heinous, and the show doesn’t do anything to correct this either. So for all intents and purposes, it seems like the show treats the deaths of the blond haired, blue-eyed Fantasy Europeans as a much greater crime than the wholesale slaughter of the Ishvalans, whose skin is dark. That’s...really messed up, and the show never calls Roy out, or bothers to deal with the implications here.

2. Making Roy the killer of the Rockbells comes at the expense of Scar’s character arc: The biggest difference between the two versions of Scar’s character is that in Mangahood, Scar has a character arc, and gets character development. In the 2003 version, he doesn’t have either of those things. The reason why only one version has character development is because of this change in the story. 

           Scar’s character arc in Mangahood is prompted by the fact that he killed Winry’s parents. Their deaths are the only ones that he can’t write off as justified. This gives him an internal conflict, and a reason to change. With that gone, his 2003 counterpart continues to be an agent of revenge who eventually dies as the FMA world’s version of a suicide bomber. It’s 100 times less compelling and it happened all because of this change in the story.

3. Making Roy the killer of the Rockbells comes at the expense of Winry’s character:

Another major criticism I have of this change in the story is how the deaths of the Rockbells focuses more on Roy’s guilt than it does on Winry’s pain in the 2003 anime. There’s a much greater narrative emphasis on how this affected Roy’s motivation to become Fuhrer. Winry barely gets any focus when it comes to this issue, and the result is that it feels like she’s pushed to the background.

 Making Scar the killer of Winry’s parents in Mangahood gives her a choice that she doesn’t have in the 2003 anime: The choice to take revenge and kill her parent’s murderer. That scene in Brotherhood that had me on the edge of my seat. I didn’t want Winry to take revenge against Scar! But I also couldn’t fault her for wanting to pull the trigger. When she doesn’t pull the trigger we learn something powerful about her.

In the 2003 FMA, we barely get to see how Winry reacts to the death of her parents. She gets a few moments sprinkled throughout a couple of episodes and ultimately comes to the conclusion that Roy is a good man who was driven to do a horrible thing. When you compare this to how Brotherhood handled the death of her parents, this conclusion feels lackluster and underwhelming. This ultimately results in Winry feeling pushed off to the side. She really doesn’t do anything interesting or memorable in the 2003 FMA, and this is a huge reason why she fails to leave much of an impact on me as a character.

Let's review the arguments

The 2003 version of FMA treats the deaths of the Rockbells as a more heinous crime than the genocide of the Ishvalans. It's given more focus in the narrative, and Roy seems more upset by deaths of the blond-haired, blue-eyed Europeans than he is about the dark skinned fantasy minorities.

Making Roy the killer of the Rockbells gives him cheap drama at Winry and Scar's expense. Scar is robbed of his character arc and development. The narrative chooses to focus on Mustang's guilt over Winry's pain. This shoves her character into the background, leaving her characterization weaker as a result.