Day 3 Theme G: Classic Literature
Fullmeltal Alchemist <-> Frankenstein
Edward: Electricity can be used for activation...It is the last thing I need to bring mother back.
I felt so excited when I first saw this theme, since the idea of reading fma manga came to my mind exactly when I was reading Frankenstein. After finishing both Frankensein and Fullmetal Alchemist, I found there are many things in parallel between them: 1. Victor Frankenstein is a talented student who was interested in natural philosophy; the Elric brothers are so clever that they can perform alchemy like playing games. 2. Both Victor Frankenstein's mother and Trisha Elric died of disease with their children being very young. 3. Victor Frankenstein didn't tell anyone about his experiment of creating a human; the Elric brothers kept their idea of bringing mother back as a secret. 4. The reference to medieval alchemy: The philosopher's stone is mentioned in both works, though in Frankenstein it is more like a symbol——"...and I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life." 5. Kind of similar to 4. Victor Frankenstein wanted to "banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death", which is close to creating "immortal" life. And in fma we see a lot of people looking for immortality. 6. Victor Frankenstein wanted to create a more "advanced" life form just as I stated in 4; the dwarf in the flask wanted to be a "perfect" thing. 7. Victor Frankenstein abandoned the monster he created; the dwarf in the flask created seven homunculi with the seven sins he abandoned. 8. And, most importantly, human's hubris are punished in both works: Victor Frankenstein's torture given by the monster; Elric brothers lost their limbs/body; or we can also count the dwarf in the flask as another example of hubris. So, for this AU, maybe the reckless genius Edward can be in the place of the mad scientist Victor Frankenstein. Also, I think maybe fma can be considered as a "bright" version of Frankenstein, since in fma the Elric brothers finally found the right path and defeated the "truth", while Victor Frankenstein died in his endless punishment.
@fmaauweek Thank you!
