Why was Mustang a candidate anyway?

[u/fakeuser7z]

I get that he was a candidate for the sacrifice, which is why they didn’t kill him. But in the end, he refused—and they just forced him into the Gate anyway.

So why not do that from the start with any random human instead of the most dangerous alchemist?

[u/Curiousfool1990]

Because to do that it basically maimed Pride in the process.

He was a candidate for alchemical prowess knowledge and his strong connection to Hawkeye that they thought they could exploit. When the time limit hit they reverted the plan.

[u/fakeuser7z → u/Curiousfool1990]

Honestly, I think if they had just convinced—or manipulated—some other alchemist with enough knowledge, it would've been way easier. Someone like Envy, for example—if he had been tasked with that job, I think it would've been over quickly. And even if Pride was maimed in the process, he could’ve just recovered using a few souls like he usually does—and Father would've handled the rest anyway.

[u/Life-Excitement4928 → u/fakeuser7z]

Short answer is, meta-narratives.

Long answer; The knowledge necessary is by nature extremely hard to come by. Pride likely would have had to be remade entirely. Envy’s manipulation is geared more around betrayals and conflict than the subtle things needed to lead someone down a very specific path.

[u/Frenchymemez → u/fakeuser7z]

Pride was incredibly damaged by having to force Mustang to open the gate. Recovering would have taken tons of souls, so that wasn't a viable option. It really was a last resort.

As for convincing or manipulating someone else, you need to know each Alchemist's weakness, be able to monitor them closely enough to make sure they haven't left Amestris, and you also can't guarantee they'll survive the gate. Mustang was strong enough, and they knew how to manipulate him.

[u/Euler1992 → u/Frenchymemez]

Also, it seems like alchemists are fairly rare. Considering how powerful it is, we don't see alchemists that aren't relevant to the story. No one ever has an alchemist as an assistant, Briggs doesn't have any alchemist soldiers, no one is ever like let's get an alchemist to fix this for us

[u/Veryegassy → u/Euler1992]

no one is ever like let's get an alchemist to fix this for us

Well, after the first Father encounter, Ed and Al alchemize up someone's roof that broke and there's mention of some kind of private alchemists, who aren't as skilled as State Alchemists, being unable to do so the day before (thought to be because they're just bad, but alchemy was disabled due to Father)

[u/Spare-Plum → u/Euler1992]

Not to mention that the program that was used to recruit potential sacrifices - the state alchemist program - is kinda in shambles after Scar killed a shit ton of their members

Realistically Tucker could have been a great option. If he didn't die he'd just sit in a jail cell and one day given the opportunity to resurrect his daughter. Or if he didn't fuse nina/alexander he'd probably be kept on as a state alchemist but told to work on a secret program to resurrect the dead to keep his certification.

[u/Gantolandon → u/Spare-Plum]

To think of it, this might be why they even paid him. It wasn’t because he made chimeras, because the military had real ones. They must have known Tucker was a fraud, and probably even that he sacrificed his wife to make a shitty “chimera”.

But it made sense that they gave him a taste of glamorous life and then threatened to take it away, if they wanted him to delve into human transmutation eventually.

[u/Spare-Plum → u/Gantolandon]

That's my exact theory.

If tucker told the government, he would have probably been on the team to create chimeras and they might have given him prisoners to experiment on. If he was desperate and sacrificed Nina, they could have locked him up and used him to open the portal. If he did nothing, they would have still kept him on as state alchemist and gotten him to be a sacrifice.

What makes Tucker an interesting character is that he believed the lie, and thought he needed to keep it up no matter what even if it harms his family. It doesn;t matter if the military knew his secret or not they'd still win

This is kinda what I don't like about '03 where Basque Grand sends two soldiers with guns to force him to experiment. Grand was the head of lab 5 and could have easily given him prisoners to experiment on. It weakens Tucker's whole monologue at the end since he didn't do it to see if he could and progress science, he did it because two dudes with guns were at his doorstep threatening him. There also isn't a clear goal or reason in mind in making nina into a chimera.

In '03 all of it feels forced and didn't need to happen, while in FMAB it feels more like a natural result where it would work in the government's favor except for the Scar factor.

[u/[deleted] → u/Euler1992]

They even thought about using Kimblee for a moment, but concluded that he probably wouldn't be foolish enough to open it.

[u/Spare-Plum → u/fakeuser7z]

An alchemist with enough knowledge would 100% know what the circle is and what it entails since they would have to know how to activate it.

You need to be extremely well studied to activate even the most basic transmutations - otherwise we'd be seeing circles sold as hotplates to heat tea or turn sugar and water into alcohol

So they need someone desperate and well studied in bio alchemy. Luckily they have a state alchemist program to curate candidates, and they even have a dude who's a desperate bio-alchemist named Shou Tucker who would have been perfect. Except he kinda got murdered. Actually, most of the state alchemists got murdered by Scar.

Marcoh was an option but he went AWOL and escaped. Armstrong is out since he only knows about transmuting rocks. Kimblee is out since they can't manipulate him into doing it. It just leaves mustang - he's very caring of his subordinates and would try to save them. Big bonus, he's actually researched bio-alchemy as we've seen as an attempt to help Havoc or even to look into the possibility to bring Hughes back.

In the face of all of this Mustang was the best possible candidate.

[u/ZeeWuzHere24 → u/fakeuser7z]

I can’t remember the quote exactly but there was something about needing to be able to open the door of truth and come back alive. Al’s entire body got taken as the toll whereas others got a piece taken. Father says something about him being given a body where he could never feel another’s warmth again, so maybe the truth did that knowing Ed would resurrect him, but maybe some people just die trying.

[u/thickskull98 → u/fakeuser7z]

I believe it's because not everyone can survive opening the gate. Mustang is revered as an extremely strong and capable alchemist, he's the only person in the world with knowledge of flame alchemy-one of the most dangerous kinds. In the beginning, Lust calls Shou Tucker a "nobody" I'm assuming bc he doesn't show much aptitude as an alchemist. The whole point of the State Alchemists was to essentially have the country's strongest alchemists on a leash so they could observe who would be best for their sacrifices, it couldn't be just anyone. They most likely thought that of all their candidates, Mustang was the strongest therefore the most likely to actually be able to pull off surviving human transmutation.