Metalbending



Metalbending was first hinted at by Aang in the episode "The Drill" when he sarcastically states "What I'd give to be a Metalbender," as he tries to make an indentation in a giant drill with Waterbending. The inability to bend metal was first demonstrated in "Imprisoned" where Earthbender prisoners, taken captive by the Fire Nation, were brought to a completely metal rig in the middle of the ocean. The Earthbenders' helplessness due to their situation was stressed several times in the episode.

Metalbending is a skill that, as of the end of Book 2: Earth, only Toph possesses. Most Earthbender are unable to affect processed metals. Usually, the trace amount of earth still present in metal is so minute that it goes undetected even to the best Earthbenders. However, due to her ability to "see" earth, Toph is able to locate the small fragments of earth in metal, target them, and utilize them to "bend" the metal portion.



In the episode "The Earth King", Toph was captured in a metal cage by Xin Fu and her former teacher, Master Yu. During the next episode, "The Guru", she tries desperately to break the cage until one of her captors berated that even if she was the best Earthbender alive it was impossible to bend metal. It was at this exact moment that Guru Pathik was explaining to Aang about the light chakra and how it is blocked by illusion. He went on to reveal that it is an illusion that the four nations are different or that air is any different from earth and also how even metal is simply earth that has been purified and refined. Toph realizes this herself and starts meditating on her cage trying to feel the vibrations of the trace amounts of earth in the metal. She then utilizes these traces of earth to tear a hole in her cage and escape.

Toph's metalbending prowess seems to be restricted to close range manipulation; in almost all cases she has had to be standing close to or in direct contact with the metal she intends to bend. Toph has "scrunched" and otherwise deformed sheets of metal, but has never caused it to levitate or freely reshape itself the way she has with earth. This was also shown when Toph could not escape from a wooden prison cell, despite there being a metal cell directly adjacent to it. However, in "The Crossroads of Destiny", when she was able to make direct contact with a metal cell door, she was able to blast it off its hinges with such force that it ricocheted four times around the inside of the prison corridor before coming to rest.

Other moments when Toph was shown using Metalbending include blasting another door in The Puppetmaster to free Hamas prisoners, opening a big hole in the Fire Lords secret underground bunker, granting them passage, and trapping a Dai Li agent in a metal column, the last two in The Day of Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse.