Metalbending

"earth"

- If you open your mind, you will see that all the elements are one. Four parts of the same whole. Even metal is just a part of earth, that has been purified and refined.



Metalbending is a specialized sub-skill of earthbending that allows an earthbender to ferrokinetically bend processed metals much as they would bend regular earth. The technique was invented by Toph Beifong when Xin Fu and Master Yu captured and transported her in a metal cage, which she metalbent and subsequently escaped from.

During a lecture on chakras, Guru Pathik explained to Aang that metal is merely earth that has been purified and refined. Utilizing her unique ability to "see" using earthbending, Toph was able to perceive the trace amount of "un-purified" crude earth still present in the metal, target it, and utilize it to bend the purified metal itself.

History


Most earthbenders are unable to manipulate processed metals with their bending. This inability was demonstrated by many earthbender prisoners who were taken captive by the Fire Nation and brought to a rig made completely from metal. Their inability to bend metal was also expressed when Xin Fu and the Earth Rumble VI fighters captured Toph and Aang in metal cages suspended in the air, from where it was impossible for them to escape.

Toph was later captured in a metal cage by Xin Fu and her former teacher, Master Yu, when they lured her away from Team Avatar with a false letter which was supposedly from her mother. While she was transported back to Gaoling by her two captors, she tried desperately to break the cage until Xin Fu chided that even if she was the best earthbender alive, it was impossible to bend metal. At this point, Toph decided to test whether it truly was impossible, realizing that metal was only purified earth. She started to meditate in her cage until she was able to feel the vibrations of the trace amounts of earth in the metal. By using these remaining fragments, Toph used metalbending for the first time, tearing a hole in her cage, allowing her to escape.



After the Hundred Year War, Toph established a metalbending academy and, by 170 ASC, metalbending had become the primary form of defense of Republic City's police force. The police use metal cables contained in cylindrical spool devices on their backs to subdue criminals.

Toph's learning curve
Toph's metalbending seems to be restricted to close-range manipulation; in almost all cases she was standing close to or in direct contact with the metal she intended to bend. She had "scrunched" and otherwise deformed sheets of metal, but had never caused it to freely reshape itself the way she had with earth. Toph was never seen being able to bend metal when it was located distantly. However, when making direct contact with a metal 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 a rest.



Toph later developed the ability to greatly increase the range of her metalbending, as months later she knocked Fire Nation guards off the group's ship from several meters away, and developed the ability to "see" through metal just the same as she could with regular earth.

Other moments when Toph utlized metalbending include an instance in which she blasted another door to free Hama's prisoners, when opening a hole in the Fire Lord's secret underground bunker to grant Aang, Sokka, and herself passage, and trapping a Dai Li agent in a metal column.

Toph seemed to have furthered her ability to control metal by the time she, Sokka, and Suki set out to destroy Ozai's airship fleet, now controlling it more fluidly. She used the metal of the door she knocked out of its hinges to make a suit of armor in the same manner as the more traditional earth armor technique. She also was able to manipulate the metal plating in the command bay of the airship from a short distance to pin her opponents to the walls. Furthermore, she also was able to metalbend the ship's floor upward to block a comet-charged fire blast just as a traditional earthbender would block attacks through earthbending using a rock barrier. She then climbed upside-down across a pipe in the airship.



Toph later bent the rudder of an airship causing it to spiral and hit the other ships. When doing so, she took more time and concentration than she would have if she had been required to do so with the more easily attainable forms of earthbending.

Teaching the discipline
While teaching her first students metalbending, Toph chose to teach them to remotely metalbend small coins rather than first teaching them via direct contact with the metal. This seems to be a result of her simplifying down metalbending to its basics after its long creative gestation period during the final months of the War, in order to teach to other earthbenders who lacked Toph's extensive talent with seismic sense. Remote metalbending seems to have been favored over direct contact metalbending in order to break down the illusion of complete separation between bendable earth and purified metal at the beginning of the student's training.

Metalbending instruction demands that the learner gather up all of their chi into their gut, heating up their center with their fighting energy. This intensive focusing of their energy is used to refine their senses so that they may feel the earthen impurities residing within the metal and potentially bend them.

Metalbending in Republic City
In more modern forms of metalbending, however, the Metalbending Police Force can metalbend without direct contact with the metal. An example of this advancement was shown when Lin Beifong unlocked Korra's handcuffs from across the room with just a flick of her hand.

Weaknesses
As shown during the events of the Anti-bending Revolution, metalbending is ineffective against highly purified metals, such as platinum, material used by Hiroshi Sato to create the mecha tanks, making the Metalbending Police Force unable to bend them. Metalbenders can still use other bendable metals to restrain and attack the mecha tanks.

Known users

 * Toph Beifong (inventor)
 * Ho Tun
 * Penga
 * The Dark One
 * Lin Beifong
 * Metalbending Police Force
 * Saikhan
 * Song
 * Metalbender officer (formerly)

Trivia

 * The idea of metalbending was first hinted at by Aang when he sarcastically stated "What I'd give to be a metalbender", as he tried to carve a notch in the hull of the drill with waterbending.
 * Metalbending is prohibited during pro-bending matches.
 * Metalbending forms are based on Chu Gar with modern military techniques thrown in.
 * The limitations on metalbending are portrayed differently in the Avatar comics. In "The Bridge" comic, Toph can clearly be seen using metalbending without direct contact in order to tie up the firebenders opposing her, whereas in the series she does not manage to do this until the finale. In The Promise, Toph also tries to teach her students metalbending remotely first rather than with direct contact, though this may be because of inherent differences lying between developing the talent and teaching it to others.