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At one point, Ed, Al, and Ling end up in a battle involving Gluttony. Then,

Ed, Ling, and Envy are swallowed by Gluttony, which lands them in another dimension.

It is also stated more than once that alchemists use the energy from the movement of the tectonic plates of the Earth's crust (though this is not entirely accurate, the inaccuracy is irrelevant for the purpose of this question). This energy would not be present on another planet, much less in another dimension.

In order to escape from this alternate dimension, Ed performs human transmutation. He uses Envy's philosopher's stone to do so, meaning that he would not require this energy. However, prior to finding Envy, Ed uses alchemy to fashion a cooking pot (evidenced by the transmutation marks on the pot). He also uses it to turn the iron from the blood into a weapon.

This should not be possible; there should be no energy for the use of alchemy in that dimension. Is this an oversight by the writer(s), or is there some explanation?

кяαzєя
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Cattua
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2 Answers2

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It is later revealed that

The energy source for Amestrian alchemy is human souls, just like how philosopher's stones are made and used.

Gluttony was meant to host a philosopher's stone in his body formed from the red water and humans he consumed, so

I would say that there is vast alchemical fuel in his "stomach", or whatever you call that alternate dimension that consumed objects are transported to.

Hence, alchemy should be possible in that dimension.

Arturia Pendragon
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  • That's not completely true, though. Yes, your first spoiler point is correct, however that energy was still only present in Amestris. Gluttony's body, and hence his stone, is still only present in the original dimension. (Darn, this is hard without inline comment spoiler tags. xD) – Cattua Feb 03 '13 at 04:11
  • Since the rules governing Anime Physics are so malleable, we could simply reason that Gluttony was an "energy conduit" from the real world to the stomach dimension... – Arturia Pendragon Feb 03 '13 at 04:19
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    That is somewhat true, and I suspect the writer(s) just overlooked it as commonplace alchemy and neglected their dimensional change. I'm not sure there's an answer to this, so I'd like to leave it open to get some speculation or sourced info (for a while) before I accept an answer. – Cattua Feb 03 '13 at 04:28
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    The energy for normal transmutation is NOT from human souls, otherwise anyone would be able to use it like a philosopher's stone. The energy does come from the earth, the network of philosopher's stones are there as a layer between. Father was shown to block alchemy by not allowing energy from below the surface pass through it. – Madara's Ghost Feb 04 '13 at 13:19
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From an FMA wiki article about Gluttony:

...Envy, Ling, and Ed burst out from Gluttony's stomach after Ed used Envy's Philosopher's Stone to perform a reverse human transmutation on himself to reopen Gluttony's gate.

Gwen
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    As I said in the second spoiler of my question, I understand how this alchemy is performed. The parts I did not understand were how he could make the cooking pot and weapon. – Cattua Aug 11 '13 at 15:24