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Nickelodeon (ended 2008)

Metalbending: What are its limits?

  • Avatar of MCMLXVI

    MCMLXVI

    [121]Sep 5, 2008
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    MCMLXVI wrote:
    Once you see it as a possibility, then you just need instruction or try stuff out on your own (experimentation, trial and error), and you need time. Seeing Toph crack open the underground fortress would probably not be enough. Aang didn't learn sandbending just by watching the sandbenders; he would need instruction or time to try stuff out on his own.
    isabelwhatx wrote:
    Toph seemed to have done it immediately when she first learned how. So, apparently, a lot of training isn't needed.
    She had plenty of time in Xin-Fu's metal cage to work things out for herself. And Toph is special, so, no wonder she was the first to succeed.
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    ThisCrazyGuy

    [122]Sep 5, 2008
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    MCMLXVI wrote:
    MCMLXVI wrote:
    Once you see it as a possibility, then you just need instruction or try stuff out on your own (experimentation, trial and error), and you need time. Seeing Toph crack open the underground fortress would probably not be enough. Aang didn't learn sandbending just by watching the sandbenders; he would need instruction or time to try stuff out on his own.
    isabelwhatx wrote:
    Toph seemed to have done it immediately when she first learned how. So, apparently, a lot of training isn't needed.
    She had plenty of time in Xin-Fu's metal cage to work things out for herself. And Toph is special, so, no wonder she was the first to succeed.
    I definitely, do not think any regular Earthbender could Metal-Bend at all... That would be like having any regular Firebender Lightning Bend... Or having any regular Waterbender Blood-Bend... It IS the most advanced form of Earthbending for a reason... The whole point of all four of the elements each having a special technique (that in power and mastery, surpass all the other bending techniques of that element), is so that only a certain amount of benders (or in Earth's case, one bender (Toph)) are capable of practicing it... You won't see Haru Metal-Bending a Fire Nation Air Ship any time soon... Toph is the only Earthbender in HISTORY to Metal-Bend, I am sure it has probably been tried before, but Toph is the only person to successfully accomplish it, due to her being unique... And I don't really think it took her a huge amount of time, while she was in Xin Fu's cage... Even if it did, it would take every other Earthbender (POSSIBLY apart from the Avatar) DAYS to perfect it the way she did.
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    ThisCrazyGuy

    [123]Sep 5, 2008
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    Toph is no ordinary Earthbender, she is a god among insects...
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    ThisCrazyGuy

    [124]Sep 5, 2008
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    Other Earthbenders would find it, almost frighteningly difficult, even if they ever did accomplsih it (It would take them months, as opposed to the minutes Toph took to learn/master it)...
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    isabelwhatx

    [125]Sep 5, 2008
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    MCMLXVI wrote:
    MCMLXVI wrote:
    Once you see it as a possibility, then you just need instruction or try stuff out on your own (experimentation, trial and error), and you need time. Seeing Toph crack open the underground fortress would probably not be enough. Aang didn't learn sandbending just by watching the sandbenders; he would need instruction or time to try stuff out on his own.
    isabelwhatx wrote:
    Toph seemed to have done it immediately when she first learned how. So, apparently, a lot of training isn't needed.
    She had plenty of time in Xin-Fu's metal cage to work things out for herself. And Toph is special, so, no wonder she was the first to succeed.
    \
    That was only for a couple hours at most. So you're saying Aang can master metal bending in a couple hours?
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    yogi_tulsii

    [126]Sep 5, 2008
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    Toph has her limits. Any seeing Earthbender could levitate a rock and jump on it. Imagine this scenario. An Earthbender realises that Toph sees with her feet. He levitates a rock and jumps on it. Toph cant feel him, and he has the advantage now. He turns the rock into millions of rock bullets firing at her, and she still doesn't feel a thing until they hit her. Now the earthbender is not standing on anything and falls, but he earthbends something to save him. Toph is easily defeated. THE END.
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    ThisCrazyGuy

    [127]Sep 6, 2008
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    Okay, let's get one thing straight here, Toph is without question the greatest, most physically and mentally powerful Earthbender in the universe, maybe even in Eathbending history. The fact that you think any old Earthbender could take the girl who: Created Metalbending, Single-Handedly Owned The Dai Li (Direct descendants of the Earthbending warriors who were trained by Avatar Kyoshi), and simply the girl who is THE Earthbending legend, is really worrying.

    You won't see Haru defeating Toph any time soon, and he is a normal-powerful Earthbender... Your basically implying that any Earthbender who can levitate a rock could defeat Toph... How do you think Toph defeated The Earthbenders in "The Blind Bandit"? Or The Dai Li in numerous episodes? Or SOOOO many other Earthbenders in the show? How do you think Earthbenders levitate rock? They STOMP on the ground to get rock to be their ally. For every Earthbender in the world to levitate a rock, they all have to have a connection to the ground... That is why Air is their opposite element, because as Human Beings and Earthbenders, their connection to the ground is frighteningly crucial.... They all have to have a touch, feel, and physical connection to the ground in order to bend squat, and guess what, as soon as they touch the ground, Toph feels their vibrations... What your not getting, is that in order for Earthbenders to do anything with Earth, they have to stomp (as said before) on the ground to do so, and this is where Toph comes in... She knows where they are 24/7 anyway (she can feel a person's heart-beat and recognizes people by their walks), but as soon as they have tried to Earthbend, BAM! They are defeated. They aren't just going to levitate a rock by just standing there... As soon as they have made contact with the ground, Toph will have them brutally encased in hard rock, or possibly even Metal (If it's around).

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    Ultimate_ritic

    [128]Sep 6, 2008
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    Boring pointless speculation.
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  • Avatar of ThisCrazyGuy

    ThisCrazyGuy

    [129]Sep 6, 2008
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    Ultimate_ritic wrote:
    Boring pointless speculation.
    How is this boring? If you don't like a thread, stay away from it...
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    Ultimate_ritic

    [130]Sep 6, 2008
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    Sorry, I've read many a book on semantics recently and this bugged me.

    An opinion would be there is no limit. At root, all bending may essentially be the same thing and as such, a powerful bender may develop the ability to apply bending to all elements... but who knows... the next bending evolutionary stage might be chocolate fountain bending... Blah blah blah (see hundreds of previous topics for more detail).
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    MCMLXVI

    [131]Sep 6, 2008
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    MCMLXVI wrote:
    Once you see it as a possibility, then you just need instruction or try stuff out on your own (experimentation, trial and error), and you need time. Seeing Toph crack open the underground fortress would probably not be enough. Aang didn't learn sandbending just by watching the sandbenders; he would need instruction or time to try stuff out on his own.
    isabelwhatx wrote:
    Toph seemed to have done it immediately when she first learned how. So, apparently, a lot of training isn't needed.
    MCMLXVI wrote:
    She had plenty of time in Xin-Fu's metal cage to work things out for herself. And Toph is special, so, no wonder she was the first to succeed.
    isabelwhatx wrote:
    That was only for a couple hours at most. So you're saying Aang can master metal bending in a couple hours?
    It would probably take more time for Aang, or not. It could take other earthbenders lots more time, or not, too. Toph did it in less time because she's special.
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  • Avatar of MCMLXVI

    MCMLXVI

    [132]Sep 6, 2008
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    yogi_tulsii wrote:
    Toph has her limits. Any seeing Earthbender could levitate a rock and jump on it. Imagine this scenario. An Earthbender realises that Toph sees with her feet. He levitates a rock and jumps on it. Toph cant feel him, and he has the advantage now. He turns the rock into millions of rock bullets firing at her, and she still doesn't feel a thing until they hit her. Now the earthbender is not standing on anything and falls, but he earthbends something to save him. Toph is easily defeated. THE END.
    Sure she has her limits. However, when the other earthbender jumps on the rock he sent into the air, Toph may not see him any more, but she knows where the rock is, and what shape it's in. She can still fight.
    Edited on 09/06/2008 11:13am
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    Bigberry69

    [133]Sep 12, 2008
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    I think she can only bend it if it has earth in it. If she could really bend metal itself, then shouldn't she be able to bend the metals in a human? Some of the metals in a human are iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, cobalt, copper, sodium, molybdenum, some chromium, manganese, and nickel. Sure, it does not take up too much of the human body composition, but do you think she could really bend the metals in a human being or other organic life? I don't think so, it's probably because of the earth particles that are in it, and no matter how much you try to purify metal from the earth, there will always be small amounts of it. What should really happen is either she can come in contact with people and bend the metals in them, or, if we decide to become evil, if someone extracted all the metal from a bunch of humans, and kill them in the process, and build something out of it, could she still bend it? I really doubt it.
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    ThisCrazyGuy

    [134]Sep 12, 2008
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    Bigberry69 wrote:
    I think she can only bend it if it has earth in it. If she could really bend metal itself, then shouldn't she be able to bend the metals in a human? Some of the metals in a human are iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, cobalt, copper, sodium, molybdenum, some chromium, manganese, and nickel. Sure, it does not take up too much of the human body composition, but do you think she could really bend the metals in a human being or other organic life? I don't think so, it's probably because of the earth particles that are in it, and no matter how much you try to purify metal from the earth, there will always be small amounts of it. What should really happen is either she can come in contact with people and bend the metals in them, or, if we decide to become evil, if someone extracted all the metal from a bunch of humans, and kill them in the process, and build something out of it, could she still bend it? I really doubt it.
    I think she is capable of bending ALL Metal... Fire Nation Metal, has been said and shown to be the most refined metal in their whole entire universe, and Toph used Fire Nation metal in the most impressive Metal-Bending scene we will quite possibly ever see... And this is a show ORIGINALLY meant for KIDS, they are not going to go that deep into the pits of science to make something like that happen... Besides, technically speaking, Metal IS (Both in their universe and in OUR universe (and our planet(Planet Earth))) scientifically speaking, another type of Rock... And we have to take into account, it has only been a year in the Avatar world, Toph came in later on the show, and learnt Metal-Bending practically at the beginning of the end... In other words, Toph has probably only known what Metal-Bending is for about 2-4 months, she won't have that kind of power... Give her about 5 years, and she will be the master of metal!
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    ThisCrazyGuy

    [135]Sep 13, 2008
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    While we are at it, does anyone else think they should give Earthbenders a new sub-branch of Earth to bend? Like, Glass? Or Crystals/Diamonds/Pearls? Or different Metals? Like Gold or Silver? Any ideas?
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    ThisCrazyGuy

    [136]Sep 13, 2008
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    Any at all?
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    Axrendale

    [137]Sep 13, 2008
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    ThisCrazyGuy wrote:
    Bigberry69 wrote:
    I think she can only bend it if it has earth in it. If she could really bend metal itself, then shouldn't she be able to bend the metals in a human? Some of the metals in a human are iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, cobalt, copper, sodium, molybdenum, some chromium, manganese, and nickel. Sure, it does not take up too much of the human body composition, but do you think she could really bend the metals in a human being or other organic life? I don't think so, it's probably because of the earth particles that are in it, and no matter how much you try to purify metal from the earth, there will always be small amounts of it. What should really happen is either she can come in contact with people and bend the metals in them, or, if we decide to become evil, if someone extracted all the metal from a bunch of humans, and kill them in the process, and build something out of it, could she still bend it? I really doubt it.
    I think she is capable of bending ALL Metal... Fire Nation Metal, has been said and shown to be the most refined metal in their whole entire universe, and Toph used Fire Nation metal in the most impressive Metal-Bending scene we will quite possibly ever see... And this is a show ORIGINALLY meant for KIDS, they are not going to go that deep into the pits of science to make something like that happen... Besides, technically speaking, Metal IS (Both in their universe and in OUR universe (and our planet(Planet Earth))) scientifically speaking, another type of Rock... And we have to take into account, it has only been a year in the Avatar world, Toph came in later on the show, and learnt Metal-Bending practically at the beginning of the end... In other words, Toph has probably only known what Metal-Bending is for about 2-4 months, she won't have that kind of power... Give her about 5 years, and she will be the master of metal!

    I don;t think that Toph will ever be able to refine how power to that point. The metal in a human body (or any body, for that matter) is not in sizes large enough for even Toph to bend. She needs to actually be able to sense what she's bending, and she requires contact with the Earth/Metal to bend it.

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    Axrendale

    [138]Sep 13, 2008
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    ThisCrazyGuy wrote:
    While we are at it, does anyone else think they should give Earthbenders a new sub-branch of Earth to bend? Like, Glass? Or Crystals/Diamonds/Pearls? Or different Metals? Like Gold or Silver? Any ideas?

    Most of those have already been done. I think that all metals come under the catagory of "metal-bending". Aang and the Dai Lee had no trouble bending crystals in COD. I don't think that glass would be bendable though. I think that that has been taken to a stage where it really, really isn't "earth" anymore. It's like wood - one of the materials in the Avatarverse that cannot be manipulated by benders.

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    TitanPredator

    [139]Sep 13, 2008
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    ThisCrazyGuy wrote:

    Okay, let's get one thing straight here, Toph is without question the greatest, most physically and mentally powerful Earthbender in the universe, maybe even in Eathbending history. The fact that you think any old Earthbender could take the girl who: Created Metalbending, Single-Handedly Owned The Dai Li (Direct descendants of the Earthbending warriors who were trained by Avatar Kyoshi), and simply the girl who is THE Earthbending legend, is really worrying.

    You won't see Haru defeating Toph any time soon, and he is a normal-powerful Earthbender... Your basically implying that any Earthbender who can levitate a rock could defeat Toph... How do you think Toph defeated The Earthbenders in "The Blind Bandit"? Or The Dai Li in numerous episodes? Or SOOOO many other Earthbenders in the show? How do you think Earthbenders levitate rock? They STOMP on the ground to get rock to be their ally. For every Earthbender in the world to levitate a rock, they all have to have a connection to the ground... That is why Air is their opposite element, because as Human Beings and Earthbenders, their connection to the ground is frighteningly crucial.... They all have to have a touch, feel, and physical connection to the ground in order to bend squat, and guess what, as soon as they touch the ground, Toph feels their vibrations... What your not getting, is that in order for Earthbenders to do anything with Earth, they have to stomp (as said before) on the ground to do so, and this is where Toph comes in... She knows where they are 24/7 anyway (she can feel a person's heart-beat and recognizes people by their walks), but as soon as they have tried to Earthbend, BAM! They are defeated. They aren't just going to levitate a rock by just standing there... As soon as they have made contact with the ground, Toph will have them brutally encased in hard rock, or possibly even Metal (If it's around).

    I agree wtih you on Toph being the only one who can learn metalbending in a few hours, but that doesn't make her more powerfull at regular bending. I know she has a connection to the ground, and knows original earthbending. But I'm going to give you a clear example now:

    I'm in my karate class. We are going to learn a new technique. It's not realy a karate move, but our teacher wanted to teach it to us because it is very usefull for self defence It's a complicated technique to grab someones wrist and than twist it and put it behind someone's back to disable him and hurt him is you need to. I have a blue belt, and my friend has a brown belt with 2 black stripes. So he's nearly a black belt. I learned the technique way quiker than him. It took me only minutes to do it properly while my friend took about and half hour to do so. This was also the case with some other kicks and puches we do. I learned them quiker than him. But when we went sparring, we could use al the techniques we learned there. I got my ass kicked by the guy, simply because he is better at the basic techniques, and because he has more experience. So my point is: if you can learn an advanced technique much quiker than someone else doesn't make you better at karate, or earthbending in Toph's case. So she isn't the best at regular earthbending.

    Metalbending is a very advanced technique, and I don't think someone like Haru or Boulder could ever learn it, but I'm convinced that Bumi can. He also has a connection to the ground because he could sence firebenders from a very long distance and than take them out with earthbending, as seen in his takeover from Omashu. He could also bend house miles away from him, that he posibly couldn't even see from where he was standing. So I don't think Toph is the only one capable of learning metalbending. She has the most raw talent of any earthbender in the show, maybe more than even Azula or Katara. But as I said, having more raw talent and being able to learn moves quiker doesn't make you stronger, and the only one capable of doing it.

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    MCMLXVI

    [140]Sep 13, 2008
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    Axrendale wrote:
    I don;t think that Toph will ever be able to refine how power to that point. The metal in a human body (or any body, for that matter) is not in sizes large enough for even Toph to bend. She needs to actually be able to sense what she's bending, and she requires contact with the Earth/Metal to bend it.
    When she punches you in the arm, she is bending your metals, thus causing the punch site to explode in all kinds of fireworks colors!
    Edited on 09/13/2008 9:55am
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