The real reason why Hughes is universally beloved: he saw people for who they truly are
I think there’s a misconception about Hughes that what makes him such an attractive character is that he he’s a family man or that he’s always there for people and those are a great qualities. Don’t get me wrong. But I think that there’s a quality to use that runs deep deeper than those surface descriptors. And that quality comes to light in this moment when he looks at Envy and immediately knows. It’s the same quality that made him believe in Mustang from the very beginning when he was just a foot soldier. The same quality that makes him open his home to Winry and the boys who have no parents of their own. He sees past people’s exterior. He sees their potential. Their wounds. And he’s able to hold it all without draining himself, in fact his own sunshiney demeanor is contagious even to the most cynical. His existence threatens Envy’s power because he sees right through it in an instant it doesn’t work on him. And I think that’s why Envy had to be the one to kill him because Envy represents the absence of authenticity, and Hughes was authenticity in its purest form. And what would be more jealous of than that?