In The Guru and later in The Crossroads of Destiny, Toph gains the??ability??or learns to metalbend. Now many people think that is a great power, which I must agree with, it indeed has its benefits, but what exactly are metalbendings' limits? For example, in The Crossroads of Destiny and in The Guru, Toph simply grabs metal and throws it. She also manages to bend it and contort it with her hands.

Is that all a metalbender can do? Do they need to be in physical contact with the metal to "bend it". It seemed to me that what Toph was??doing was under the same catergory as Super Strength. Can metalbender's bend metal without touching it? Can they bend little balls and throw them, without touching it? Can they contort it and wrap someone with it, without touching it? What exactly are its limits? Feel free to discuss here.

Well I'm not too sure about whether or not it needs to be contact based. The thing about Toph is that she needs to "see" what she bends and because she can't "see" without having to bang on it could limit what she can bend. Also because she bends the earth in the metal instead of the actual metal, it probably means that some metal would be harder then others.

If you look at what Toph is doing, metalbending has many more physical limits than regular earthbending.?? Earthbending is limited by the skill and power of the earthbender, while metalbending, if you can do it at all, is almost completely controlled by how well the metal has been purified.

It is physically impossible to metalbend without touching it first, and difficult to bend if you're not in physical contact at that moment.?? Plus, only Toph is capable of sensing where the unrefined bits are, so we'll never know about the 'average' metalbender.?? Anyway, metal will be easier to manipulate if Toph senses this:

...o...o....o.......

..o..o..o...o..o...

o..o.oo...o....o..

Than if she senses this:

??....o............

..................o

..o......o........

??But because you must focus on the individual little bits, it's almost impossible to bend it without touching, and completely impossible if you don't touch it first, as I've said.?? But you can never do more than the earth bits allow, which is why Toph's metalbending will likely be worse when using it on Firenation machinery than in the prison or something, because they will have smelted it better.?? Which will inevitably cause a bunch of complaints by those who don't get it.

The thing about metalbending is it appears she needs to have a specific target to do it(as in the impure arts of the metal. And I think that'll require some degree of close proximity to the metal itself. It'll be nice to see the squad rushing a Fire Nation formation and for Toph to jump forward and rip a tank apart with her bare hands. Let's see someone from Naruto do that. Uh oh did??I just relapse into those"Naruto vs. Avatar" threads?