combustiblegarbage:

calangkoh:

rude:

you actually bring up a good point and i have a counterpoint: the amestris military were fascists who committed genocide. making hughes a nazi was meant to be uncomfortable because it’s reminding the audience that they spent a whole series sympathizing with “nazis”

Roy, hughes, riza, etc…we love them as characters, but they all participated in genocide. even hughes who was just a desk jocky in 03 during the war is as much to blame. in words of ed in 03: there is no war that isn’t in some way caused by all of us.

So yeah I think hughes being a nazi (btw its not even hughes. its an alternate reality version of him in a certain society, showing that anyone, no matter how lovable, can do evil things if under the right circumstances) is a genius move that people take out of context (or they get the context but the purpose goes over their head because they’re too uncomfortable with the idea to think it through)

U know for some reason the 03 Made Hughes A Nazi complaint just clicked with me the way it never has before.

I think the perspective is that people think we’re supposed to like/sympathize with cos!Hughes, or that the intent was to humanize Nazis by making a fan favorite character one.

And that’s an extremely valid complaint, but I think it fails to take into account, as you have said, that CoS and 03 generally are designed to unsettle and make the viewer uncomfortable. Making Hughes a Nazi isn’t humanizing Nazis; it’s bringing real world context into the Ishbalan genocide, reminding you that these people participated in deeply evil things as well – and yet we were willing to look past that BECAUSE of the humanization the characters got over the course of the series.

So like in a way, Nazi Hughes is a jarring reminder that we CAN’T be complacent and willing to excuse things just because the characters/people have been humanized. It’s the creators saying, “Hey, that guy was a Nazi actually!” – and saying so not with the intent that the audience goes “well but I love him!!!!” but instead with the intent that the audience goes “holy shit, he was a fucking Nazi”

I understand complaints about capitalizing on Jewish trauma to upload the real world horror to a fictional universe – and there are some CoS decisions that are validly criticized, like making a character titled the Fuhrer in 03 into a Jewish character. I just think the disconnect here with Hughes is that, the narrative is not telling you to LIKE Nazi Hughes! It’s reminding the reader that even fun goofy desk job people are active participants in a fascist genocidal regime if they sit back and let it happen! If anything it’s a call to action and reminder to always Examine.

@rude I like….I get it lmao I understand what u mean and why it looks fucked up (I mean, it is). But I also think that’s kind of the point. And I’d be up to Discuss without proselytizing if you’d like lmao