Lust Quotes

The standard reading hears a death curse, and the last clause is one. The middle is something stranger: praise, and exact praise. Across the episode Lust has called Riza a sad and weak creature and Barry a handful, and the thing she admires in Mustang is the coldness with which he has just burned her repeatedly while asking how many times it would take. She is not wrong about what she sees. Earlier in the episode she told him he was a prime candidate for sacrifice and said she really hated to kill him, and the homunculi use that word for the humans their plan needs. So the regret was never about him. She was sorry to lose a resource, and here she is sorry to lose, full stop, which she says in as many words. It plays as a villain losing gracefully. It is closer to a curse from someone who still thinks of him as useful.

Two homunculi reach for the same two words, and what separates them is what each is looking at. Bradley uses them about a king's creed and where it got the king. Lust uses them over Riza Hawkeye, who has just fired into her again and again and collapsed in tears, because Lust has let her believe Mustang is dead. Bradley's verdict is on an idea; Lust's is on grief, and grief is the easier target because from outside it looks like weakness. The scene refutes her twice. Alphonse refuses to leave the Lieutenant, and Mustang, alive after all, arrives to agree with him and then kills Lust. Bradley's sneer needed a scoreboard to stand on. Lust's needed Riza not to know the truth, and it lasts exactly as long as the lie does.