<div class="quote"><i> <p>BumJun wrote: By organic matter, I wasn't including the water inside. Like when waterbenders bend vines, they're not really bending the organic matter, they're just bending the water inside. Same for bodies. </p><p>As for the poison, look up amalgrams (mixtures of mercury). </p> </i></div>
<p>Not bad, but do any of them behave like pure mercury? Because that poison pretty strongly mimicked the element. </p><p>I like to think that earthbenders can't bend any metal with a strong metallic character unless there's some kind of impurity to it, & they can't bend nonmetals, wood, or plastics. </p><p>Of course, this is where earthbending becomes such a headache: Because most elements which are solid at room temperature are metals, most substances with any degree of hardness could arguably be considered "earth." So to fight an earthbender, before the Equalists invented the gloves, the options were wood, MAYBE hard plastics, MAYBE bone, & of course platinum, since it's the only known nonbendable metal. That doesn't give a lot of options to arm a nonbender. </p><p>And personally, I think that bone should be bendable, at least when it's outside of a living organism. </p>

<p>the reason why plantium is not bendable has being a debate for days  </p><p>Plantium is the least reactive metal in the world </p>

<p>So if Korra, even in the avatar state, could not bend platinum, then explain how she broke free from her shackles. Through her sheer strength? Because she literally broke the last three chains she was bound to, without any visible bending. </p>

<div class="quote"><i> <p>FTWinchester wrote: So if Korra, even in the avatar state, could not bend platinum, then explain how she broke free from her shackles. Through her sheer strength? Because she literally broke the last three chains she was bound to, without any visible bending. </p> </i></div>
<p>Yes. The Avatar State supercharges the user's chi, which is related to physical strength. </p>

<p>I still don't quite understand what you all mean by "platinum is a pure metal". Then waterbenders shouldn't be able to bend pure water and mudbending should be a lot easier. A pure metal just means that it doesn't have any other components, so every material can have a pure state. In fact, nothing is totally pure. There will be always a small amount of particles from other substances. I think you want to say that platinum is a noble metal, a metal quite resistant to corrosion. Titanium is also very resistant despite being not a noble metal, steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, therefore not pure. It's not mentioned if there are other metals which can't be bent. I think you are mixing the two definitions. </p>

<p>Back in The Last Airbender, metal bending was justified as bending the impurities in the metal, that is, the small remnants of Earth that are left in the metal.  Platnium as it is portrayed in the series is simply a metal that has very few, if any, Earthen impurities that an Eathbender could manipulate.   </p><p>I believe that the idea is that metal can not be bent, but the Earth within it can, similar to how a plant can not be bent, but the water within it can.   </p>

<div class="quote"><i>Then waterbenders shouldn't be able to bend pure water and mudbending should be a lot easier.</i></div>
<p>Negative. Just because it works a certain way for earthbenders, that doesn't mean that it works the same way for other types of Benders. Obvious examples include Firebenders' ability to generate flames without a conventional fuel source & the fact that Waterbenders can only bend water or aqueous solutions while Earthbenders can bend a wide range of minerals. </p><p>As for the rest, what FoggyMoor said: The canonical, stated rule is that platinum can't be Bent because it's "too pure," & metalbending requires "Bending earthen impurities in the metal." We don't know what that's supposed to mean either, that's what we're trying to figure out. </p>

<div class="quote"><i>Korbl wrote:
I also wish that platinum hadn't been chosen to be the "unbendable metal." But then, I think the need to explain metalbending as "bending the earth impurities in the metal" is dumb. Metals are minerals, and "earth" is a cosmopolitan mix of minerals ranging from silica to carbon. There is literally no reason that an earthbending couldn't just be "mineralbending"</i></div>
<p>I do think earthbenders are "just mineralbending" (how else could they bend the crystals in the Catacombs?). But they can't bend metals because it's such a different state of being solid than rock and crystal. Metals are a malleable collection of positive ions, held together by valence electrons that freely move between the atoms. All other solid matter, however, is a firm structure of molecules, with the valence electrons locked into stable orbits. This is why metals bend, while rocks break, and why metals conduct heat and electricity so well. You could say that metal is different from non-metallic solids in the same way as plasma differs from non-ionized gases (and these last two are recognized as 2 different phases of matter!). </p>

<p>im sure soemone can bend platinum its still earth, maybye toph developes it next season? </p>

<div class="quote"><i> <p>FTWinchester wrote: So if Korra, even in the avatar state, could not bend platinum, then explain how she broke free from her shackles. Through her sheer strength? Because she literally broke the last three chains she was bound to, without any visible bending. </p> </i></div>
<p>Well if you see that scene once again it looked as thought the chains are breaking from her pulling while the rock that are holding the chains she bended those. Yet I don't know if we've seen examples of the Avatar State giving super strength, however I wouldn't put it pass it if it did so. </p>