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 special subset of techniques within earthbending that allows an earthbender to ferrokinetically bend processed metals much as they would bend regular earth. It was first developed by Toph when Xin Fu and Master Yu captured her and transported her in a metal cage. She then bent the cage, setting herself free.

During a lecture on chakras, Guru Pathik explained to Aang that metal is merely earth that has been purified and refined. Using her unique ability to "see" through earthbending, Toph is 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.

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.

History


Most earthbenders are unable to manipulate processed metals with their bending. This inability was first demonstrated by earthbender prisoners, taken captive by the Fire Nation, who were brought to a completely metal rig in the middle of the ocean to exploit this weakness. The earthbenders' helplessness due to their situation was stressed several times. Earthbenders' inability to bend metal was also expressed when Xin Fu and the other Earth Rumble VI fighters captured Toph and Aang in metal cages suspended in the air. Toph only escaped this cage by means of a ransom, and Aang was released when his cage fell to the ground, where Sokka and Katara broke it open.

Toph was later captured in a metal cage by Xin Fu and her former teacher, Master Yu, again when they lured her away from the group with a false letter 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 the metal. At this point, Toph realized that metal was only purified earth, just as Guru Pathik was explaining this to Aang many miles away at the Eastern Air Temple. Toph 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 so that she could escape.

After the Hundred Year War, Toph established a metalbending academy. And by 170 ASC, metalbending was being used by Republic City's police force. Led by Lin Beifong, the police uses metal cables contained in cylindrical spool devices on their backs to subdue criminals.

Limits
Toph's metalbending seems to be restricted to close-range manipulation; in almost all cases she had to be standing close to or in direct contact with the metal she intended to bend. Toph had "scrunched" and otherwise deformed sheets of metal, but had never caused it to freely reshape itself the way she had with earth. This limit also became apparent when Toph could not escape from a wooden prison cell, despite there being a metal cell directly adjacent to it. In addition, she appeared unable to bend her and Katara's gold jewelery to escape their wooden cage, so it may be that not all metals can be manipulated by metalbending, as precious metals like gold naturally contain less impurities, although it's possible they just didn't think about it at the time. However, 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.



Toph was able to greatly increase the range of her metalbending, as she knocked Fire Nation guards off the group's ship from several meters away, simply by grabbing a piece of the ship she was on and crunching the metal with her hands to produce the effect (this technique is similar to the earth fissure). It also seems that she can now "see" through metal just the same as on regular earth, possibly even with greater clarity as metal would conduct vibrations far better.

Other moments when Toph was shown using metalbending include blasting another door to free Hama's prisoners, opening a big 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 (as opposed to direct contact needed previously) 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 up a rock barrier, despite lacking direct contact because of her metal armor. She then climbed upside-down across a pipe in the airship, probably by achieving a magnetic effect.



Toph later bent the rudder of an airship causing it to spiral and hit the other ships. Even with this, 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.