i have the true spirit of a yuri knight

@abluescarfonwaston’s idea

just off the top of my head

but i don't really think of it like that anymore, especially looking at it in the context of liore, youswell, and the train chapter that come right before it. each of those small arcs investigates a particular avenue in which humans use human institutions to harm other humans. religion and authority in liore, class and money in youswell, power and violence and the military in the train arc. and all throughout those arcs is the ever-present threat of the governing military woven throughout daily life and ed's hatred of the military and the state and these and casual mentions of a much-despised past war setting off crazy alarm bells in our heads a mere 6 chapters in, knowing something is rotten in the state of amestris

so it only makes sense that the next thing we investigate is a triple-threat of alchemy, family, and the state. alchemy uses outside of our beloved protagonists' strong humanitarian ethics. the way that familial abuse lies in sinister wait where you least expect it. and in this case, unethical science and familial abuse go hand-in-hand, rewarded by livelihood money from the state.

i used to think, ok, this a cautionary tale about the horrors of alchemy pushed too far. and, like, sure. but i think more than that it's about how the state-fueled drive for results at no matter the cost directly rewards unethical research and treating human life as a cheap commodity. tucker had done it once and gotten away with it. not only did he get away with it, he was rewarded for it, so he knew he could do it again. because the state has a cancer growth mindset and the alchemist program wants results no matter what. and the guys at the top (i believe the fuhrer directly oversees all state alchemist exams) clearly don't care about human life ("the state has no interest in ethics"), only progress in that line-go-up cancer growth kind of way that directly incentivizes unethical behavior.