Entry:
Dante's comedy has been adapted into a modern anime TV series Fullmetal Alchemist. The show draws on many of the concepts presented in the original epic poem, but also radically changes the context being talked about. The anime series is very fantastical, involving humans and non-humans, such as witches. What is most striking about this, in its connection to the comedy, is that the character named Dante opposes Dante Alighieri almost completely.
In Fullmetal Alchemist, Dante is an ancient old woman that has all the knowledge of ancient alchemy and practices alchemy to get what she wants and control those around her.
Dante's main mission in life is to reach immortality. She and her husband create the Philosopher's Stone which allows them to transmute into different bodies and to continue to live on. He husband eventually leaves her however, but not before they have a son. Unfortunately, the son gets mercy poison at a young age and almost dies, but Dante tries to save him and transmutes him into this human-looking magical creature called Envy. Envy is the only magic person to have a name of one of the deadly sins. Other characters that appear include Pride and Greed.
Dante's personality are very enigmatic, because she constantly changes form. Most of the time, however, she is a heartless person who looks down upon everyone else. Throughout the series, Dante commits every one of the Seven Deadly sins found in Inferno:
Pride: as I said, she looks down upon everyone, and thinks that all the blood shed that goes into the philosopher's stone doesn't matter because others' lives are pointless
Envy: her husband leaves her for another lover, "envy" actually becomes the name of their son
Wrath: she uses her alchemy powers to punish her servants and ex-husband
Sloth: she often sends lesser alchemists to do works to get her the philosopher's stone, having a cool demeanor about her, and leaving the footwork to everyone else
Greed: she will stop at nothing to get the stone
Lust: she takes over bodies that are attractive instead of matching her 400 year old soul, and sometimes uses them to sleep with unsuspecting lovers of those she has replaced
Gluttony: the desire to live longer is just the desire to all these lives, but waste them, accomplishing nothing but attaining more life
The picture provided has a passing resemblance to extant portraits of Dante himself.
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