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At the end of FMA: Brotherhood, when Ed got his arm back, it was muscular, and
he used it to fight. When Al got his body back, however, it was weak and
emaciated, as it had shown to be throughout the show on the other side of the
gate? Was it ever explained why this might have happened?


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2013-09-30T18:59:56.213
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fullmetal-alchemist-series fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood
Why was Ed's arm strong but Al's body not?


Firstly, it's worth noting that the difference in their strength is perhaps
not as drastic as it appears. Though Al's body has essentially wasted away,
you can see that Ed's right arm is significantly weaker than his left arm as
he did not have it during during the series (or for several years before), in
which he had a lot of physical improvement.

![Ed, after regaining his arm](https://i.stack.imgur.com/d0vHO.jpg)
![Alphonse's weakened human body](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ahg1Em.png)

However, as you mentioned, we can still notice that there is a difference.
Ed's looks normal, though somewhat skinny, while Al's looks like complete skin
and bone.

Unfortunately, I can only offer speculation as to why this is. Ed realizes
that it's possible that he and Al were somehow interconnected within the gate,
which allowed him to provide nourishment to Al's body through some kind of
connection.

[!["I wonder if there's a possibility our minds were entangled during that
process?"](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nuHZWs.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nuHZW.png)
[!["I'm wondering if it's possible your body and I are connected in some
way."](https://i.stack.imgur.com/w5Nt2s.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/w5Nt2.png)
[!["So you're saying your growth is connected to how Al would have
grown?"](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wKxFws.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wKxFw.png)
[!["Could it be he's making up for my sleep,
too?"](https://i.stack.imgur.com/eZibzs.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/eZibz.png)

However, assuming this is true, it's easy to observe that Ed remains fully
nourished and Al is significantly more starved. By this logic, if we assume
that Ed's arm, too, is connected to his body in the "real world", he could be
nourishing that at the same rate as his regular body, while Al's body would
only have received partial nourishment. Unfortunately, this is never stated in
the series, so it's just a guess.

So, while it's not a complete or necessarily canon answer, the best I can
surmise is that while Ed's nutrients are feeding both his own body and Al's,
he is receiving the lion's share of those nutrients, allowing his arm to
degrade at a slower rate (or not at all).


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