Talk:Earthbending/@comment-108.204.172.203-20111022033815

This has always seemed a little exaggerated to me. Whenever you see characters earthbending in the show they simply produce boulders or giant pillars of rock straight out of the ground. But most of earth’s surface is covered by top soil and lose gravel, not rock. If the planet in the series was completely covered in hard rock it would be impossible to grow food and everyone would either starve or revert to hunting/fishing. Also, when you take rock out of the ground it has to come from somewhere but most of the time earthbenders just hit the ground a boulder pops up and they proceed to fling it at something. There should be a recess in the ground where they the rock was laying before. Sometimes this is shown in the series but even so, making giant pillars of earth would destabilize the surrounding area (imagine picking up a handkerchief, the edges would move in towards where you are holding it)... right? If earthbending were real I would imagine that it would require much more skill than is shown in the series.