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riza'slittlesister - Go ahead and organize any Roai Valentine's Day projects with others on this thread.
QUOTE(riza @ Jan 15 2007, 09:20 PM) [snapback]494523[/snapback]
[spoiler] Was anyone else surprised by their calling Roy's other subordinates "hostages" too? It struck me that they were sort of hostages, but Riza was the only "real hostage".[/spoiler]
I checked the Raw again on that page.
Technically, Armstrong said Mustang's "
subordinate(s)" and we don't know for sure that that was plural, since in Japanese language that word could have meant single or plural. So, (assuming Olivier was in fact referring "Mustang's subordinate(s) = in hostage situation,") that could still have meant Riza only.
Another way of reading this is that this does not necessarily goes "Mustang's subordinate = hostage."
In that page of manga, they listed the "facts," and the list goes
King Bradley, "
Father,"
Upper Military are all contaminated,
hostage, AND
Mustang's subordinates situation (them being disbanded and dispersed).
That "Mustang's subordinates situation" could have been simply listed as another situational fact, and it happened to be listed after another situational fact of "some are being taken as hostage(s)" and this "hostage(s)" could have been referring to Winry and Riza.
In this sense, they are NOT saying "Mustang's subordinates = hostages."
Mustang's subordinates are in bad situations... and Armstrong acknowledges that, and she likes to save them, but I'm not quite convinced from reading this that she is viewing Havoc as one of their "hostages" also.
Especially, this being followed by Falman saying "What about Mustang??"
If Armstrong views Riza AND Havoc as hostages, then with the wording here, Armstrong also sees Mustang as a hostage. But, I don't think Armstrong views Mustang as a hostage. Mustang is in bad situation, yes, but he is NOT hostage. Similarly, Mustang's subordinates are in bad situation, yes, but they are NOT hostages.
(Tehehe, this almost looks like we are in a Japanese reading classroom.

)
Going technically further, asides from Japanese language, being hostage is effective ONLY if there is some third party who cares about the well being of that hostage. Winry is effective as a hostage (and the deterrent for Ed) because Ed cares about well being of Winry. And Riza is effective as a hostage (and the deterrent for Roy) because Roy cares about well being of Riza.
Roy's subordinates... yeah, I know Roy cares about them, but not the same way Roy cares about Riza. We all know that... right??
Hence, I don't know if we can regard Roy's subordinates as "hostages," and similarly, I'm not sure if Armstrong regards Roy's subordinates as "hostages."

Gahaha, that was a long boring post!!