Talk:Earthbending/@comment-76.24.189.176-20111228115209/@comment-76.173.106.242-20120205100801

You can only earth end what's around you. If you're on the beach or in the desert, that's sand. If you're in a crystal cave, that's crystals. If you in a metal ship and happen to be Toph, then that's metal. But if all you have is dirt and rocks, then you're not going to make sand, crystals, and metal just appear out of nowhere. It's not quite like waterbending, which can make water change phase from solid to liquid to gas. At best you can pulverize rocks to sand or compress rocks into boulders, but that takes time and can't change the material from rock to metal to crystal.