Everything must start from the villain in the bottle extracted from the blood of slave No. 23 thousands of years ago. The person in the bottle knew how to approach the truth and knew the most advanced alchemy at the time. It tricked the king to sacrifice the souls of all people in the entire country. The Stone of the Sage wants to use this power to rival the gods to further explore the door of truth. This is the beginning of the story.
The person in the bottle was grateful to slave No. 23, taught him alchemy knowledge and gave him the name Hohenheim, and shared half of the power of the Sage’s Stone to make him immortal and immortal. It wasn't until a thousand years later that Hohenheim met his beloved wife and gave birth to the protagonist of the story, the two brothers Edward and Alphonse, and the plot really unfolded.
What does the person in the bottle represent? This is the first question.
First come to popular science
Plato believes that people actually live in dark caves. We can occasionally recognize the surroundings by the shadow of the flame in the cave shining on the rock wall in the cave, and the shadow of the flame will shake with it. Therefore, the cognition is restricted by the shadow of darkness. However, there is a sun-drenched world outside the cave, and that world of truth is the goal of the pioneers of mankind. What should we do if we want to explore the world outside the cave? The answer is: rational thinking
The man in the bottle is an artificial person imprisoned in a glass bottle. He yearns for a free world outside the bottle. The bottle is like the world in a cave. Why are cyborgs born? Because the pioneering thought of courage to explore the truth outside the cave will inevitably appear at a certain point in time.
After completing the sage’s stone, the man in the bottle stripped 7 sins: arrogance, jealousy, rage, laziness, greed, gluttony, and lust, and created the corresponding 7 human beings. The only thing left after being stripped of original sin is rationality, which is the weapon in the hands of ancient Greek philosophers. Following the path of reason, the world’s science and alchemy have been continuously developing. The man in the bottle secretly established the country of Amestolis, in an attempt to repeat the tragedy of living sacrifices to the whole country, and forge a stronger sage’s stone. To gain the power to see the truth
However, Brother Edward, who accidentally touched the human body and became a taboo, embarked on a journey to become a national alchemist in order to retrieve his lost body. He also gradually learned the secrets of the establishment of this country, and finally combined the forces of all parties to defeat the man in the bottle.
Why does the man in the bottle fail? Is there an inevitability in this? This is the second question.
Here I will not discuss the superficial reasons why the evil in the plot does not suppress the righteousness, and the protagonist team is high. The fundamental reason for the failure of the person in the bottle was that he failed the contest with the truth, and was pulled into the door by the black shadow tentacles.
So why is the person in the bottle sanctioned by the truth?
When humans think rationally, they often think that they have the power to rival the gods. Among them, the means represented by science were born. We have artificial intelligence, gene editing, manned spaceflight, atomic bombs, and so on. It seems that we are only the god of truth. A step away, arrogance arose spontaneously. However, we may be just a bug in the eyes of high-dimensional creatures. Who am I? Where am i from? Where are you going? The seemingly simple three questions of philosophy still plague mankind. Constantly questioning the truth and discovering that it is only a longing and unreachable goal, it will eventually fall into a deep emptiness, and nothingness brings only fear and despair.
People who were confident and armed with the weapon of truth found themselves at a dead end. (Humans have language boundaries (the boundaries of language are the boundaries of thinking) we better keep silent about the unknown).
This is the story of the man in the bottle, trying to use the power of alchemy (rational) to pursue the truth or the power of the gods, and finally be educated by the truth, "Truth is to give despair to an arrogant person like you."
This is the root cause of his failure. So how do you get out of this dead end? The camera turns to Edward.
Why did Edward be favored by the truth and get a happy ending? This is the third question.
"Are you willing to give up alchemy and be reduced to a mortal?" Let me translate: "Are you willing to give up the use of reason to pry the truth and re-recognize your own insignificance?"
"I was a mortal from the beginning" "Answer is correct." In the end, Edward exchanged his alchemy ability for his brother.
Now that the road of reason has reached a dead end, where should the road of philosophy go? Nietzsche gave his answer. We have one and only one world, which is this endless world. There is no cave or heaven outside, and we even curse "God is dead".
To criticize the illusory truth of Plato’s belief, we should step on the earth to believe in our own power, which is the power to transcend ourselves, and the philosophy of overman not superman was born. This kind of philosophy is irrational and positive. It has helped modern philosophers to break out of the dead end again, avoid looking up at the stars and start thinking about what we can do. It is of great significance.
The play witnessed Edward's growth, surpassing himself all the way, and could not help being moved. At first, he was also the person who was superstitious in alchemy. The cost of trying to resurrect his mother with alchemy was disastrous. He lost one arm and one leg, and his brother lost his entire body. Later, he still wanted to use alchemy to restore the body of himself and his younger brother. His noble character made him refuse to use the sage’s stone, which eventually led him to wake up, stepping out of the dead end of rational nihility, and trading alchemy at the expense of his ability. younger brother. This is a process from the pursuit of rationality to sensibility. Along the way, Edward has overcome various difficulties and persisted in the will to "not kill", defeated the person in the bottle and surpassed himself, becoming a superman in the true sense.
This is why Edward is favored by truth
Just as Nietzsche said, what you want to surpass yourself is will and power, and Edward uses kindness and implements the will to "not kill" from beginning to end. And the other protagonist, Mastan Gu Dazuo (the highest dps in the show, who has experienced the Ihinval annihilation, is dedicated to the pursuit of power to change the destiny of the country, and is merciful and righteous to the enemy and friends and subordinates) who pursues power , But he did not lose himself because of this. Finally, he chose to use the sage’s stone to cure his blindness and becoming the president of the country brought a bright future to the country. He also completed his self-transcendence. There are some other supporting characters who are also very plump, so I won’t talk about it.
Then the author's creative intention is clear. This is a story about transcending oneself, a story about the transition from reason represented by Plato to Nietzsche's sensibility. We have witnessed brotherhood and growth, the result of the love between childhood sweethearts, the dissolution of family estrangement, the choice between power and will, and the reflection on war and modern civilization. The plump characters are more about different positions than black and white. They are full of emotions and reflections. Worthy of being a masterpiece without bad reviews in the past 20 years, thank you for your hospitality!
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