One of my favorite animes that I had finished last year is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. A show about 2 boys in a alternate version of 1910’s Germany called Amestria, where limbs can be replaced by metal parts called automail, and people can learn alchemy, but there is one rule that governs the laws of alchemy. The law of equivalent exchange, that in order to create something, something of equal value must be given up. The 2 boys, Edward and Alphonse Elric, attempted to use alchemy to bring their mother back to life after she died due to an illness when they were little, using their absent fathers books and lessons from their strict teacher, they, Ed especially, nearly mastered the practice of alchemy around the age of 11 or 12. Upon gather all the materials that make a biological human, the boys were ready, this would be a good time to mention that human transmutation is forbidden and taboo in the laws of alchemy, but all they wanted was to see their mom smile again, they didn’t get that. Instead, Ed had his leg taken by a entity only known as Truth, as punishment for committing this crime against nature, but Alphonse got the worst of it. He lost his entire body, forcing Ed to bind Al’s soul to a old suit of armor and sacrificing his arm to do so. After this ordeal Ed gets a new metal arm and leg, becomes a state certified state alchemist, “dogs of the military” as their called in the show. But Ed only does it for one reason, to research a way to get his brothers body back at all cost, to find a philosophers stone. Though he gets Al’s body and his arm back, it isn’t with a stone (due to it needing multiple human sacrifices and Ed refuses to go that far) and comes with a price (He loses his ability to use alchemy, that he willingly gives up to get his brothers body back), they eventually accomplished their goal.
But Fullmetal Alchemist, as much as I would love to just talk about the show, asks us a real question that we can apply to real life. What is the value of a human soul? To Ed at first, it just meant adding DNA to their transmutation, but after he is forced to ask that exact question, what could you exchange that equals a human soul? It asks us to put a price on what makes humans human, if that’s even possible. To me? No, you can’t put a price a the soul of a person, that is what makes your traits, personality and drive. There are even scenes in the show that show us what some characters views on a human soul is, a perfect example is when Ed and Al go to learn from Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist, who created a Chimera (a monster that is usually a mix of animals) that could talk. He claims that his wife ran out on him 2 years ago, Tucker has a little girl named Nina and a big fluffy dog called Alexander. We later find out in one of the shows most horrifying scenes that 2 years ago Tuckers wife didn’t run out on him, but instead he fused her with a animal to create his talking Chimera. In order to keep his state certification he had fused together Nina and Alexander in one of the most sad and terrifying scenes in the whole show. This shows that Tuckers view on his daughters life was that she was a tool to be used to get him a paycheck. This show has so many great topics to talk about and I might do another blog on a character, but this shows main question that follows Ed and Al through the entire series hangs over everyone, even in real life. I suggest you think about it, what really is the price of a human life, and can you put value in it?
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