Megane Day – The Lasting Memory of Maes Hughes

It’s Megane Day! I wasn’t going to let this chance slip to create a post so here we are. This is actually a really fun and cool idea that Mel came up with and of course, I had to hop on because why not? You can read her original post here.

I’ve decided to dedicate my post to Maes Hughes because that’s the first person I thought of when I remembered that I still hadn’t written this post. (Yeah, I’d forgotten and remembered at uni hence it’s coming out in the evening with a whole lot of other posts) Hughes is a great guy and a loving father and well, here goes my post for him!

Hughes was the first big character death in FMA and FMAB that really felt like a blow because he was just an all-round wonderful guy. Whilst he doesn’t get much time on the screen, his death, memory and what he discovered all have a lasting effect on the characters and the events that follow. It’s as if, though not present, he is still intertwined in the events that occur. It just goes to show that he didn’t die for nothing and that, he was still essentially “living” at least in the acts and in the memories of the other characters, especially Mustang.

Hughes’s death came because he got too close to the sun hence he burnt. As an investigations officer, I can see why he couldn’t keep clear of what the Elric brothers were looking into and really, to some degree it tied into his own investigations on Scar. What’s interesting about Hughes is that he has a sharp mind and I don’t see him anywhere but with his head in a book or looking at maps and whatnot. He is a great researcher and has a sharp mind which allows him to see the bigger picture and connect the dots. In any other investigation or job, this would be amazing but, it is also fatal to him. He was able to connect the dots way too quickly with this instance which meant he learnt what was going on with the homunculi and how long this plan was in motion before anyone else and that’s what, essentially, got him killed.

Of course, this doesn’t overshadow the type of character Hughes was. I love how he was always so talkative and happy. He was one of the only characters who was like that right up until the very end. He didn’t let anyone else know about his worries or show the effect the Ishvalan War had on him, he tried very hard to move on from that for the sake of his wife and daughter. It’s not that he didn’t feel the aft

 

ereffects or the trauma that came from the war, but that he simply hid it away into the recess of his mind for the sake of his family and the life he now had. I think this takes a lot of power and strength to do and that makes me respect his character all the more.

However, I think all of you will agree me on this one – the best thing about Hughes is how he dotes on his daughter and spreads that love to the Elric brothers as well. Hughes is quite the father and Elicia is a lucky girl to have known him as her father, even if he didn’t stick around for long. He cherished her and boasted about her to everyone! I just love that about him. He was a proud father and was not afraid to share that with everyone. Considering his job, one may think that’s risky but the fact that he doesn’t care just goes to show how much he loves his wife and daughter and wants to show them off. Honestly, the relationship between Hughes and Elicia was the purest and cutest thing this show had. In the middle of all that dark despair, their relationship was very comforting to watch.

For me, knowing that Hughes could have been the father figure the Elric’s never truly got to experience, and an amazing father to Elicia as well was probably what made his death ten times worse. The nicest guys always tend to catch the short end of the stick and that was especially the case for Hughes. Still, he played a crucial role in the show because without his death, Mustang wouldn’t have been motivated and the dots would not necessarily have been connected at the end.

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