Valedictorian | Armin Arlert

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The name of the doctor in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, is often falsely attributed to the monster, instead of calling the doctor Frankenstein. It makes sense, the story isn't about Doctor Frankenstein, it's about the monster. But still, to call the monster Frankenstein is like calling the hero of the Legend of Zelda, Zelda.

Oh, the timeless dilemma. After a while the souless asshole who reminds every that Frankenstein was, in fact, the doctor, begins sounds a lot like the kid from sixth grade science class that there were actually four states of matter; solid, liquid, gas and plasma. Any idiot can google that, so who cares?

But still, Doctor Frankenstein was a genius. But maybe he was also a monster, or maybe he was just sadistic. The idea of attaching several limbs and trunks, parts and pieces of the general human body, mixing and matching a collection of individuals, and breathing life into it via electricity. Frankenstein wasn't the monster, but he definitely was one. Perhaps, it would be more fitting to say he was a god. Or at least a cheap, Walmart version.

But what does this say about mankind, calling Doctor Frankenstein a monster? Before this point, nobody before but woman and God had given life. It almost implies those who give life are monsters.

The Church was delighted at the ingenuity of such ideas!

That was a lie, of course.

Even so, Mary Shelly opened up a new world of possibilities to the world of science as European Christendom had resisted.

The subsequent debut of Frankenstein led to the trend of crimes known as grave robbery throughout Europe. The grave robbery wasn't a new concept, hell the whole reason that Egyptian pyramids were methodically constructed with false hallways and staircases was to throw off grave robbers.

Only grave robbery in Egypt versus grave robbery in Europe had very different goals.

Mary Shelly probably didn't know it, but her story triggered the mania of murders and theft of many, many dead bodies from their graves. The scientific revolution could not be silenced, as much as the Church had tried. Unlike within the scientifically advanced areas like Dar al Islam, it was considered sickening to open up a body of the deceased, so the Church had it outlawed.

But science persisted. Human curiosity was too strong and it always will be. We have the medical knowledge that we use today because of the stolen bodies and that was one of the few times, misconceptions had been your friend.

Frankenstein brought forth life- a human life, albeit with the flesh of several people, like a person made of scraps, crumbs from past lives. Maybe that was what made Frankenstein's man a monster. It was hard to not feel like your own father was Frankenstein because you truly felt like a variety of components that didn't quite fit together.

Your A+ in physics had dropped to an A, meaning if you kept this up, Armin would be valedictorian. Although he had missed school the pass two days, which gave you some hope.

Even a Frankenstein's Monster can be valedictorian, you figured. Despite being dealt shitty cards, you could see Armin's were just as bad.

Dr. Jaeger was gone today, leaving you under Doctor Onyonkapon. Whom of which you largely preferred over Dr. Jaeger.

"You look crestfallen, Miss (L/N)," Dr. Onyonkapon pouted.

You rose a brow at his choice of words. "Crestfallen?" You scoffed. "Ok, Shakespeare." However, it did bother you that it was so apparent just by the look of you. "I guess you could say something has me down, though."

"Young people like you shouldn't be so despondent." He said, not making eye contact. "Believe it or not, your life has just begun, and it isn't good to have such a... rough start." He flipped through the charts of his next patient. "Plus, happier people live longer."