#but i can say alfonse's death is the reason alphonse was able to cross over in his own body

[zombiemollusk]

so a long while back i had an fma realization i never got around to posting here about it until now, but while thinking about it today i had another one.

it's easy to forget because it isn't brought up in the movie proper, but in conqueror of shamballa, there is actually a very good reason why ed won't let alfonse or noah to his home dimension: remember in episode...50 i think? when ed first came to our side of the gate? he inadvertently possessed his alternate self, and then accidentally got him killed, which is why the second time he crosses over it's as himself.

it's not really confirmed whether he figured out noah's connection to rose or not, but either way he has no way of knowing if her alternate self is still alive or not and doesn't want to risk that person's life (he may have learned about rose from winry while getting his arm updated, but he was preventing it even before that), and he almost certainly knows about alfonse and alphonse. (even then, letting someone like, say, german!hughes into amestris runs the risk of amestrian!hughes's family projecting onto him, which would be its own can of worms.)

this all led me to another realization: this is not the first time ed has prevented a woman (with a masculine name even!) from taking over rose's body.

--

(side note - another realization: this confirms dietlinde eckhart's alternate self is dead, since she keeps her own body after crossing over too. as are hohenheim and envy's selves, though considering their ages that wouldn't be too surprising.)