Adam's Brain

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Having read Mordenheim some time ago, something really unpleasant just clicked for me.

Mordenheim makes much of the brain he selected for Adam's construction ... and Henrik Von Brandthofen, father of his dearly beloved wife Elise, had died not that long before.
Mordenheim appreciated Henrik as one of the few who respected his own drive for knowledge and scientific advancement. And Adam, while possessed of a newborn spirit, mentions the feeling that he feels as though he had known Elise before...

What do you guys think?

[KingCorn]

Having read Mordenheim some time ago, something really unpleasant just clicked for me.

Mordenheim makes much of the brain he selected for Adam's construction ... and Henrik Von Brandthofen, father of his dearly beloved wife Elise, had died not that long before.
Mordenheim appreciated Henrik as one of the few who respected his own drive for knowledge and scientific advancement. And Adam, while possessed of a newborn spirit, mentions the feeling that he feels as though he had known Elise before...

What do you guys think?

Makes sense. Something similar happened in the Hammer Horror film version

[tomokaicho]

Having read MordenheimMordenheim makes much of the brain he selected for Adam's construction ... and Henrik Von Brandthofen, father of his dearly beloved wife Elise, had died not that long before.
Mordenheim appreciated Henrik as one of the few who respected his own drive for knowledge and scientific advancement. And Adam, while possessed of a newborn spirit, mentions the feeling that he feels as though he had known Elise before...

You mean that you think that the brain is meaningful in the behavior of Adam? I doubt it.

If I recall correctly, Adam's soul is that of an evil spirit. The proverbial "bad seed". I think that is more meaningful than some left over brain matter.

[Mistmaster]

Having read MordenheimMordenheim makes much of the brain he selected for Adam's construction ... and Henrik Von Brandthofen, father of his dearly beloved wife Elise, had died not that long before.
Mordenheim appreciated Henrik as one of the few who respected his own drive for knowledge and scientific advancement. And Adam, while possessed of a newborn spirit, mentions the feeling that he feels as though he had known Elise before...

You mean that you think that the brain is meaningful in the behavior of Adam? I doubt it.

If I recall correctly, Adam's soul is that of an evil spirit. The proverbial "bad seed". I think that is more meaningful than some left over brain matter.

Point is, that version sound lame to me; check here for my take on both Adam and Victor.My Take of Lamordia

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Having read Mordenheim some time ago, something really unpleasant just clicked for me.

Mordenheim makes much of the brain he selected for Adam's construction ... and Henrik Von Brandthofen, father of his dearly beloved wife Elise, had died not that long before.
Mordenheim appreciated Henrik as one of the few who respected his own drive for knowledge and scientific advancement. And Adam, while possessed of a newborn spirit, mentions the feeling that he feels as though he had known Elise before...

You mean that you think that the brain is meaningful in the behavior of Adam? I doubt it.

If I recall correctly, Adam's soul is that of an evil spirit. The proverbial "bad seed". I think that is more meaningful than some left over brain matter.

The origin of Adam's brain is indeed not significant with regards to his behaviour.

It does, however, add additional tragedy to his mutilating Elise. He could potentially have accessed Henrik's loving memories of Elise if she had not utterly rejected him.

It also underlines how utterly warped Victor is. He desecrates the grave of his father-in-law, one of his few friends, praising the quality of his brain while plugging it into an abomination against nature, and presents the whole thing to Elise in full expectation of her praise, all without a moment's thought that this might not be acceptable behaviour or an insult to both his friendship and his marriage.

[tomokaicho]

It also underlines how utterly warped Victor is. He desecrates the grave of his father-in-law, one of his few friends, praising the quality of his brain while plugging it into an abomination against nature, and presents the whole thing to Elise in full expectation of her praise, all without a moment's thought that this might not be acceptable behaviour or an insult to both his friendship and his marriage.

You could make a pretty good case for Victor having a bad case of autism. In the novel you can see Mordenheim go through the motions of doing what normal people do, mainly because he is aware that there are societal expectations of him, such as getting married. I can imagine Victor thinking "I put Elise's father's brain to good use. Why isn't Elise grateful that her father has a second chance in life?".

[tomokaicho]

\Point is, that version sound lame to me; check here for my take on both Adam and Victor.My Take of Lamordia

My take on Victor and Adam are a wee bit different.

[The Lesser Evil]

One big thing is that it probably means Dr. Mordenheim betrayed Elise even before he got to constructing Adam, as I'm pretty sure she'd be freaked out to learn her father's corpse was defiled and his brain was put into Adam's skull. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have told her, which means he probably knew at some level what he was doing was wrong despite whatever justifications he tried to spin it. And continuing to educate Adam without intercession knowing Henrik's brain is influencing Adam's behavior is also a new level of heinousness.

It also potentially adds some levels of horrible and creepy for Adam. Relating to the discussion of whether Adam deserves to be darklord, having the brain of a decent person might have given something to contradict the "bad soul" he was given with. So given the choice between the pull of a good brain and the pull of a dark heart, Adam went with the latter. Therefore, he could have truly made a choice.

On another level, it makes Adam's relationship with Elise so much more insidious, depending upon how much of Adam gets from Henrik's brain. Like we're talking multiple layers of Oedipus Rex complexes here, with Henrik being Mordenheim's father in law and Mordenheim being Adam's father of sorts. Not to mention Adam's feelings of incestuous attraction toward Elise, that's just made of the stuff of nightmares. Perhaps on some level Elise could sense the horribleness, and that's what repulsed her the most from Adam. Dr. Mordenheim's betrayal of Elise in keeping Adam around becomes a lot more personal, because he's smart enough to know what's going on but doesn't intercede, perhaps viewing the whole thing as part of the experiment. Of course, Mordenheim doesn't really stop to think of what (or rather, who) he might lose until everything falls apart.

And Adam's lashing out at Elise also takes on a whole new level of cruelty, if he could tap into Henrik's memories of her. The violence and betrayal becomes a lot more personal when you're killing your own blood kin whom you know is normally non-violent.

So I guess my assessment of the Henrik's brain in Adam's body plot thread could be two fold. One, it takes things with Adam. Elise, and Mordenheim to a level of darkness and perversion that many people might not feel comfortable with. However, it does solve a lot of problems I felt about Adam's deservingness to be a darklord. And it really solidifies both Mordenheim and Adam as truly despicable villains through the personal natures of their crimes.

[ewancummins]

Abby Normal?

[Mistmaster]

I prefer to keep Victor as the sole Darklord and depicts Adam C/N.