Tropes A to F (Berserk Button, Famous Last Words) | Tropes G to P | Tropes Q to Z (Ship Tease)
Manga/Brotherhood
- Fullmetal Alchemist has Roy Mustang/Riza Hawkeye teasing out the wazoo. Arakawa manages to get to epic lengths without the tiniest Relationship Upgrade:
- General Grumman asks Roy to take his granddaughter as his First Lady when he becomes Fuhrer, to which Roy says all in good time. (One of the artbooks reveals that granddaughter to be Riza)
- He learned flame alchemy from her naked back.
- One of their secret codes is them flirting over the phone, with her taking the role of 'Elizabeth'.
- The staff at the bar run by his foster mother believe 'Elizabeth' to be his girlfriend.
- He refers to her as 'my queen' in the chess-piece analogy he uses for his subordinates - he himself being the king (which is the meaning of his name 'Roy' and a reference to his future ambitions to run the country)
- She "lost her will to live" when she thought he was dead.
- And then, chapter 94: "Just kidding."
- In the last arc of the series, their respective injuries (Roy is blind, Riza on the verge of passing out from blood loss) necessitated them holding on to each other at all times.
- And Ed/Winry, Lan-Fan/Ling, and Al/Mei. Let's face it, Hiromu Arakawa loves this trope, the manga brimming with official/near-official couples.
- The people in charge of the Brotherhood anime love those semi-official couples too, and sometimes throw in extra little shipping scenes in the series or in the openings and endings. Let's just say the fifth opening takes the cake if you're a fan of Edward/Winry. At least they're made official at the end of the series.
- The ending picture of the manga/Brotherhood is the biggest Ship Tease in the series. (Did Al and Mei hook up at the end?) Looks like the world may truly never know the truth.
- The third art book does at least contain the official answer for one of the almost couples. Roy and Riza are not a pairing at the end of the series...well, not out loud. Arakawa confirms in her comments on one art piece that the only reason they aren't married is because the military has an anti-fraternization law, and to get married they would have to stop working together. Since Riza is fairly crucial to Roy's plans to become Fuhrer, they can't give up the working relationship; but the implication is pretty clear that once he reaches the top (which Arakawa has confirmed elsewhere he will), they'll be together.
Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)
- The first anime doesn't have any romantic resolution for the main characters, but is well-known among the fanbase for teasing so many ships: Ed gets hints with Winry, Rose, and Noah in The Movie. There are also some Roy and Riza hints toward the end of the anime, some Winry and Al hints, even Winry and Sciezka ones...
- Edward and Winry's relationship is hard to pin down in the 2003 anime. It's never 100% certain if Winry is an Implied Love Interest or if she and Ed are Like Brother and Sister. They still have a fair chunk of teasing though:
- In an early episode Edward gets rather flustered around Winry.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa, Ed and Winry are reunited with a hug. Edward even blushes when Winry hugs him. Winry is also seen thinking of Edward throughout the film and is one of the few who see Edward leave.
- An OVA showed the Identical Grandchildren of Edward and Alphonse. While the OVA is likely non-canon, it's unusual in that one of the siblings looks like Winry. This implies that either Winry somehow made it through the Gate and married one of the brothers or one of them got with Winry's alter counterpart instead.
- In an OVA made to go with The Movie, Winry gets very upset and drunk when she sees a photo of Ed and Noah together from the film. Edward tries to explain it's Not What It Looks Like but Winry doesn't buy it.
- There is a lot of heavily romantic official art and promotional art of Edward and Winry together.
- In general, they have several scenes where one or both of them gets slightly blushy, and a lot of their arguments still come off as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
- Much of Winry's screentime with Edward from the manga is replaced with her and Sheska together. They form a friendship, despite their age difference, which contains its fair share of Les Yay.
- There is a scene near the end where Edward dances with Rose. Ed blushes the entire time and his blush deepens when Rose confesses to him. He is surprised at this but pushes her away because he doesn't think she's in her right mind at the time.
- While Roy and Riza's relationship isn't given the focus it has in the manga, the two are still portrayed as close and have a lot of teasing:
- The most infamous example is the scene where Riza seems to be having an Erotic Dream only to be awoken by her dog licking her feet. It's never mentioned who the dream was about but it was most likely Roy due to her being close to few other characters.
- The final episode near the end features Riza (who has her hair down for the first time on-screen) feeds Roy an apple in bed. Roy strokes her hair while commenting how the world is imperfect but beautiful nevertheless.
- The series' credits depict a scene where an unusually happy Riza is shopping with Roy which looks pretty romantic.
- As with Ed and Winry, official artwork often features Roy and Riza in romantic situations.
- Though not actually shown in-series, a piece of artwork from The Movie shows the alter versions of Roy and Riza. Even their Earth counterparts are close, despite it being unlikely that Riza's alter was ever in the military.
- Though non-canon, they have an image song that basically sounds as though they're flirting with each other throughout its duration, specifically, rainy days, no thank you.
- Dante is very touchy-feely with Rose in a way that seems too much for just admiring her new vessel.
- It's revealed that Lust was created when Scar's brother tried to revive his dead lover. Scar and Lust have a large amount of Unresolved Sexual Tension together, particularly on Scar's side, as it's implied he might have had a Precocious Crush. Their Alternate Universe counterparts briefly appear together in Conqueror Of Shamballa.
- Winry and Paninya have a bit of this, due to the scene where Paninya explains her backstory to Winry being a tad more emotional than it was in the manga, and then Paninya lets Winry spend the night at her house afterwards.
- In this version, Roy can come off as having one-sided feelings for Hughes, and non-canon image song releases basically work with that (as well as add some potentially unspoken ones from Hughes' side, specifically in Angel Heart and The Last Meeting). They are both basically written like Ed and Al's adopted fathers, as well, a lot more than in the original manga, as Hughes is shown interacting with Al and Ed from 10 and 11 years old till his death extensively, and reveals he wanted to take some of Roy's burden in stressing over them.
