>reads last few posts
>see alchemy being assigned absolute morality
>see alchemy being confused with black magic
>see alchemy being turned into something that's not alchemy at all
>see alchemy being applied as an umbrella term because it sounds cool or whatever
Like I know CV's already got a slightly off-center concept of alchemy and how it works thematically and symbolically, but this is ridiculous. There's no "dark" version of alchemy because alchemy is inherently neutral; how it is used and why assigns morality and only then to the specific instances--the alchemy itself doesn't care one way or the other, its practitioners are the ones with the moral attachment. It's nice to see that there's some actual understanding of the alchemic process and consideration for the steps of the Magnum Opus, but even that's more surface-level understanding than anything.
If you want a better look at a theory to incorporate the Magnum Opus into Castlevania, look no further than Mathias' collarbone--the Crimson Stone IS the Philosopher's Stone, born from the Prima Materia that is Chaos and providing eternal life through vampirism.
What I'm seeing here isn't much more than something loosely inspired by Fullmetal Alchemist's equivalent exchange principle, which while effective and well-researched thematically into real-world alchemic philosophy, isn't a strong enough concept on its own to just run with.
"You want more power, shed your humanity?" That's not really how equivalent exchange would work, and in this context it would only really make sense if there was a presiding force or entity over the exchange which had a bias as far as what counted as "equal," if the power being described here can be bought simply by relinquishing a mortal lifetime. That kind of exchange assumes an exchange of the human soul, which only has the necessary inherent value if some morally-committed entity or force controls the exchange--right, like God. And if a morally-biased force presides over the exchange, and by extension/inference all of alchemy, then all of alchemy is morally-charged, and if alchemy is morally-charged, then it's not alchemy and citing real-world philosophies and principles and steps and processes is folly.
Alchemy thematically is about understanding the universe, existence, and one's place within it at large and vice-versa, with attachments to the divine being present or absent depending on which sect or school of alchemic teaching one looks at. It's not "good" or "evil" or "light" or "dark." It just
is. Creatures of morality such as humans determine their own usage's morality on their own terms--alchemy as a process doesn't really give a shit one way or the other.
This isn't really alchemy. It's black magic and occultism being worded as alchemy purely for the sake of semantics.
Remove the moral veil from the overarching process and you begin to have something which can be called alchemy. With an assigned morality one way or the other, it ceases being the potential that is alchemy and becomes a singular force for the given moral preference.