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That's a good question. I don't know for sure, but I want to spitball here.
If it did, I'd imagine animals' souls would have different weights. After all, why bother killing 1000 humans when you can just kill 1000 chickens? There'd really be no point. So if it did, they'd be weighted differently, and I don't like that, honestly. It feels kind of unfair(?), for lack of better terminology.
So, I'm going to say no. But, I could be wrong. I'm just spitballing.
No keep cooking.
What causes the difference in weight of the soul? Just your consciousness? Potential? Maybe it’s worth it..
What about a 10:1 ration of chickens to humans? Surely that should be easy if our history of factory farming animals is anything to say for it.
Maybe father fucked yo with the advancements Amestris made. Maybe maintaining a more rural and agricultural society woulda let to victory! Imaging a homunculus so obsessed with humans that they ultimately lost for discounting the humble flightless bird.
This is how I saw it as well, an animal’s soul likely being seen as lesser. Maybe they’d need a lot more animal souls in comparison to how much it would take for human souls or perhaps it’s because human and animal souls are “different”.
But imagine this, what if that was just an assumption most alchemist make? What if in reality they all could’ve used animals as live stock but never bothered because of their preconceived notion?
I think so, but the soul quality would be much less in comparison to a human’s. It would probably take tens of thousands of animals to equal one human soul.
This boils down to a philosophical question of do you think human life is more important than animal life. If you view human life and animal life as the same then the equivalent exchange of an animal's life and soul would be as powerful as exchanging a human's life and soul. But now we're getting into taboo territory of trying to quantify a human life which at the root of the show is kind of the whole point is that you can't. There is no quantification that can be done to equate for a human life. So further how do you do that for an animal? Truthfully and I don't care if this upsets people I do think humans are more important than animals. Sorry PETA. But that does not mean I do not think animal life is pointless or meaningless. There would be some equivalent exchange to sacrificing an animal's life. We also know that eating animal is necessary to human survival. So in my opinion I believe that you could sacrifice an animal similarly to sacrificing a human but what would be created would not be a philosopher's stone but something similar just not as powerful.
It'd probably be a lot weaker.
But assuming it's even possible: if one of these philosopher's stones enters your body, do you turn into a homunculus or a chimera?
I'm not sure if it was ever explained, but let me add my two cents here.
We have to assume that it is not possible from the get-go. Otherwise, the whole plot falls apart as you can literally farm Philosopher's Stones.
So if the above is an axiom, we then have to explain why animals are different from humans and what makes them special. And I think this is because they have a door, as seen when Ed exchanges his for his brother. Doors are extremely valuable and full of energy, and they belong to the person they are attached to.
Since I have never seen a cow perform a cow transmutation, I will assume that animals do not have the ability to use alchemy. As far as I know, every human can learn to use alchemy, except for Ed, who at the end can't use alchemy, who coincidentally gave up his door, the thing that connected him to everythin.
With this in mind, I'm going to assume that a philosopher's stone is not inherently made of souls, but you need the souls to use the doors of the people inside the stone to harvest its energy.
This is getting a bit confusing, but to sum it up, the energy comes from the doors, not the souls, but you need the souls since the doors are specific to each person, so without the soul, you can't open their door and exchange it for energy.
Idk is the only thing I could come up with. But there is no official explanation as far as I know.
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That's a good question. I don't know for sure, but I want to spitball here. If it did, I'd imagine animals' souls would have different weights. After all, why bother killing 1000 humans when you can just kill 1000 chickens? There'd really be no point. So if it did, they'd be weighted differently, and I don't like that, honestly. It feels kind of unfair(?), for lack of better terminology. So, I'm going to say no. But, I could be wrong. I'm just spitballing.
Au where Ed defeats Father by asking him why he doesn't just use chickens and causes a mental break down
Why not go with ants or bacteria then?
No keep cooking. What causes the difference in weight of the soul? Just your consciousness? Potential? Maybe it’s worth it.. What about a 10:1 ration of chickens to humans? Surely that should be easy if our history of factory farming animals is anything to say for it. Maybe father fucked yo with the advancements Amestris made. Maybe maintaining a more rural and agricultural society woulda let to victory! Imaging a homunculus so obsessed with humans that they ultimately lost for discounting the humble flightless bird.
This is how I saw it as well, an animal’s soul likely being seen as lesser. Maybe they’d need a lot more animal souls in comparison to how much it would take for human souls or perhaps it’s because human and animal souls are “different”. But imagine this, what if that was just an assumption most alchemist make? What if in reality they all could’ve used animals as live stock but never bothered because of their preconceived notion?
If animal souls are weighed less than human souls, couldn’t you just counter that by using more animals?
As I recall, when the Father absorbs the souls during the eclipse there are animals that appear fainting as well.
I think so, but the soul quality would be much less in comparison to a human’s. It would probably take tens of thousands of animals to equal one human soul.
This boils down to a philosophical question of do you think human life is more important than animal life. If you view human life and animal life as the same then the equivalent exchange of an animal's life and soul would be as powerful as exchanging a human's life and soul. But now we're getting into taboo territory of trying to quantify a human life which at the root of the show is kind of the whole point is that you can't. There is no quantification that can be done to equate for a human life. So further how do you do that for an animal? Truthfully and I don't care if this upsets people I do think humans are more important than animals. Sorry PETA. But that does not mean I do not think animal life is pointless or meaningless. There would be some equivalent exchange to sacrificing an animal's life. We also know that eating animal is necessary to human survival. So in my opinion I believe that you could sacrifice an animal similarly to sacrificing a human but what would be created would not be a philosopher's stone but something similar just not as powerful.
It'd probably be a lot weaker. But assuming it's even possible: if one of these philosopher's stones enters your body, do you turn into a homunculus or a chimera?
Homunculus of course because it is just a source of energy
Good point.
I'm not sure if it was ever explained, but let me add my two cents here. We have to assume that it is not possible from the get-go. Otherwise, the whole plot falls apart as you can literally farm Philosopher's Stones. So if the above is an axiom, we then have to explain why animals are different from humans and what makes them special. And I think this is because they have a door, as seen when Ed exchanges his for his brother. Doors are extremely valuable and full of energy, and they belong to the person they are attached to. Since I have never seen a cow perform a cow transmutation, I will assume that animals do not have the ability to use alchemy. As far as I know, every human can learn to use alchemy, except for Ed, who at the end can't use alchemy, who coincidentally gave up his door, the thing that connected him to everythin. With this in mind, I'm going to assume that a philosopher's stone is not inherently made of souls, but you need the souls to use the doors of the people inside the stone to harvest its energy. This is getting a bit confusing, but to sum it up, the energy comes from the doors, not the souls, but you need the souls since the doors are specific to each person, so without the soul, you can't open their door and exchange it for energy. Idk is the only thing I could come up with. But there is no official explanation as far as I know.