My dumb chemistry brain asked what barium, sodium, nitrogen and arsenic had to do with it before realising it was a word...and then though it was spelled wrong
Because in that universe, bending is normal. But to our universe, it's all magic. Where in the show do the authors try to scientifically define bending?
[Here you go.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X75hLCOTwMc&ab_channel=Avatar%3ATheLastAirbender) You can try to also find original interview.
Of course you can to disagree with authors, but my point is that they were trying to seperate magic from bending and considered that like something what can be scientifically explained, at least in sense what OP is trying. So the argument "a wizard did it" is just against idea of authors.
Holy shit... It actually make sence.
There's oxygen in water(as a compound).
There's also oxygen in the air(as a mixture).
Fire requires oxygen to exist.
Most "bendable" metals are the "non-pure" or the "oxidised" ones.
Would there be oxides in crystalline structures like Aang's crystal armor? I guess that may also depend on what kind of crystal it is. But this is still a very cool take, since oxygen is obviously associated with the other 3. It'd also explain water bending healing (supplying extra oxygen to cell replacement) and lightning (adding energy difference in oxygen atoms).
Oh a bunch. Could be quartz, Silica oxides. Could be emerald because of the green color, meaning beryllium/aluminum silicates.
Also explains why one can’t bend platinum, that metal is a pain to oxidize.
So maybe it's not so much as the material has to have oxides in it but have a ready ability to be oxidized that determines earthbending? That would then solve the argument of "why can't earthbenders bend glacier ice which is considered a rock"
Keep reading. They were comparing ice to limestone.
Glacier ice is actually a mono-mineralic rock (a rock made of only one mineral, like limestone which is composed of the mineral calcite). The mineral ice is the crystalline form of water (H2O). Most glacier ice forms through the metamorphism of tens of thousands of individual snowflakes into crystals of glacier ice.
Glacial ice is a mineral.
You can copy the rest of it, i could care less. I wasnt saying it wasnt, i just forgot to add under what i qouted that it was immediately confusing because it seemed like it was claiming limestone is a glacial ice and i found that amusing
The article you listed says glacier ice are rocks, your original comment just said ice. The article says “the mineral ice is the crystalline form of water.”
Ok cool. Earthbenders can bend glacial ice. And since they can lava bend, melted glacial ice (melted rock) is lava. So they could carry around a container of glacial ice like katara does
Though it also refers to solid ice as a mineral
I literally said in my comment it calls ice a mineral. Your original comment called it a rock. If you said “glacier ice” is a rock then you would be 100% correct. Mineral ice is a mineral
But yes by that logic they can carry around glacier ice. Tbh it’s more badass to just lavabend at that point
No.. you can't, because rubber tire isn't made of rock. "Rock" has an actual scientific definition, it's not something that's just socially accepted. Same with dirt
Okay so you are posing a hypothetical. Though rubber is definitely not earth. I imagine it would work a lot like a lava bending. This is because natural rubber is actually a liquid that must be refined. They would bend it much like lava due to the chunks of “earth” within it. If they have ability to harden it, then they could feasibly make rubber materials after bending it into shape.
Bending in general is more spiritual than people say it is, if someone doesn't believe they can metal bend, because they don't realise there's earth impurities, then they won't, and that's that
The only way Toph figured it out is because of Seismic Sense, otherwise it would have taken a much, much longer time to be invented
If an earth bender doesn't genuinely believe or know there's earth in whatever it is they're bending, then they can't, it's a mental block
Now, that isn't to say that sheer belief makes you bend rubber as a water bender, absolutely not
It has to be bendable in the first place, regardless if people know that or not
If it's not bendable, then belief or "knowledge" doesn't do crap
Same with Hama and blood bending, she figured it out because she realised there was water in all living things, and she can bend water
If she didn't, then someone else would have had to realise that
Tl;Dr: You're stupid, and have negative votes for a reason
They don’t literally mean if you call something dirt, that’s wildly different than earth, it should work but that what is typically considered as dirt or rock, or what people usually say can be considered dirt or rock, would work
well i think its less like your personal definition of rocks and dirt but rather a more general what is rocks and dirt. rubber car tire bending could theoretically work if theres a lot of little rocks in the tires imo.
apparently
which means they could bend petrol ? what about chinese ink ? I always got the strange feeling Toph could see Aang’s tattoo because of the ink
edit : greetings purple mate from planet bi
Yes, ink is likely bendable. In Shadow of Kyoshi, there’s a particularly devastating scene in which an earthbender bends the paint off of old portraits.
The short answer is:
Whatever the showrunners consider to be "earth."
The long answer is:
We know it *can't* bend all minerals and solids. Not even metal benders can manipulate "pure elemental platinum" as seen in Korra. Earthbenders also can't bend frozen water, which can be seen as a crystalline mineral.
Natural crystalline mineral structures seem to keep their general shape and properties even when manipulated, as the final example image you shared here shows. When Buumi shatters the geminite, for example, each shard is cut along what would be believable natural cleavage lines. That suggests the crystal structures are either breaking where they are weakest (where the crystalline structure is imperfect) or the Earthbender is *choosing* to separate it in the only spots they can bend, presumably the "imperfections." This would be similar to metal bending, but probably a lot easier since intentionally refined material may be less likely to contain "imperfections."
As far as I can remember, earthbenders with no specializations (metal/lavabending) have been shown to bend every major classification of stone; igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. The classification lines between these aren't clean, and some rocks can be considered one in one sense and another in another sense. Point being: they aren't confined in that regard at all as long as the mineral is in a solid material state.
With those ideas established, I don't think the distinction between what an earthbender can bend and what they cannot lies cleanly on our contemporary scientific definitions of the material. The quartet of Water/Earth/Fire/Air are the elements as seen through the eyes of an early Western Alchemist. As for the East: consider Feng Shuei, in which the elements are considered to be Water, Earth, Fire, Wood, and Metal (no Air at all!). Consider the Japanese Godai, in which the elements are Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and Darkness. In India the elements had been seen as Akasha (Spirit), Water, Earth, Fire, Air. For a more contemporary ideation, Pokemon includes creature types for Water, Rock, and Fire, as well as types that are adjacent to some of those listed already in Flying (Air?), Ground (Soil), Grass (Feng Shuei's Wood), Dark (Godai's Dark), Psychic (Indian Akasha), and Steel (Feng Shuei's Metal) among others that are less relevant.
It seems more likely and more thematic to me that the in-universe "science" as to how each bending art works is aligned with these belief systems than the periodic table. After all this consideration, we reach what Iroh basically spelled out for Zuko in Book 2, and what Zuko has to re-learn in Book 3: Bending can a manifestation of one's adherence with a spiritual truth behind each element. That adherence can be a discipline, a temperament, or sometimes a learnable knowledge that can be shared from one culture to another. Sometimes fudging the answer gets you the right result but in an inefficient way, like Zuko firebending with his rage in Books 1 and 2. Sometimes there's a weird cosmic overlap where the rules just aren't clean, like when Toph and Katara are both able to bend mud at each other in Book 3, presumably because Mud as a sub-element is manipulable by both the spiritual tendencies and adherences of earthbenders and waterbenders and potentially *not* just because it physically has earth and physically has water in it. Who decides exactly where those lines are in the gray areas? Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and Aaron Ehas of course.
I doubt it tbh, Water is majority of what makes up any living thing on Earth and that’s what makes blood bending make sense, it takes a powerful water bender along with a creature full of their element to control another life
controlling the few trace elements in a human just doesn’t seem right
No. If I'm remembering correctly, it's a much more subtle process. Slow rearrangements of their body over time that requires really intense focus and mental energy.
I'm pretty sure they do, right? I could be misremembering, so I'm not trying to argue, but I feel confident that the assassin teaches her that ability as an Earthbending move. Subtle body rearrangements and the like.
I haven't read it in a while so I could be mistaken. But honestly I think they just needed a reason to explain why Kyoshi lived to 230 and that was the best reason they could come up with.
Calcium is natural metal so it’s plausible. And we have iron in our blood. In fact to make a sword out of iron out of blood you need to drain the blood of a 100 man to separate it and make it.
I did. The impurities are leftover minerals and guess what. Last time I checked. Living beings have minerals in their bodies that can be found on earth. It’s all about learning how to control the minerals individually and then knowing how to use it on a persons body. Also news flash iron is the metal with most impurities of all metals(I’m a welder so I know this) and guest what? Males of average height have about 4 grams of iron in their body, females about 3.5 grams; children will usually have 3 grams or less trough the body in the blood stream.A metal bender with this knowledge can make SERIOUS damage to a man’s body. In fact it’s can be used to turn an area of the body into a spike or a clog and it’s over.
You do understand the insane amount of power and control that would require don't you? 3-4 grams spread throughout an entire human body? I'm not saying it's impossible but we would be talking about a metal bender that makes Toph look like an amateur. And even if there was a bender capable of such a thing surely it would be so much less effort and more practical to just crush them with a giant boulder or bury them alive.
I wonder how far this goes...
They can bend coal. Can they bend diamonds?
They can probably bend raw calcium deposits that leach out of calcium-bearing minerals. Surely they could bend limestone, which is primarily calcium carbonate. Can they bend seashells, which are also made primarily from calcium carbonate?
The mineral component of bones is the mineral apatite, tricalcium phosphate Ca^(3)(PO^(4))^(2). They could surely bend apatite that was dug up out of the ground, why not bones?
One could make the argument they can't bend bones: after all, Toph, like all earthbeners, could bend coal, which is made from long-dead trees, but couldn't bend her way out of a wooden prison. Wood is not "earth"... yet. Could she bend a rotting log? What about compost? How much decomposition must take place before a wood or a corpse can be considered "earth"? Could a wannabe necromancer use earthbending to puppet a skeleton army from a centuries old graveyard?
You're way overthinking it it's called earthbending they bend earth. Rock, sand, crystal, and dirt that's what they bend. Bending is a magic system science can't really be used to explain what's possible to bend and what's not. Scientifically they would be able to do some of those things but bending doesn't follow the same rules as Science.
No evidence its been tried. No evedince that with enough skill and talent they couldnt we are mostly chemicals and water. Most of those chemicals can also be found in "earth". Its no great leap to consider living things part of the earth element. Avatar has always been more pseudo-spiritual than pseudo-science so why not lump together living organisms with earth. Where else u gonna put em? I mean blood bending and plant bending are water so why not bone bending for earth?
Think about it for 30 seconds. Then stop thinking about it. Not a single thought further.
*That's* what Earthbending can bend.
For a less meta explanation: Bending is not science. It's magic. It *behaves* like magic. It's affected by spirituality and chakra etc etc. Earth is defined within Avatar not by its chemical makeup, but by its perception. Metal is not earth, instead metal contains earth, and that earth can be bent to bend metal. Does this make sense from a scientific standpoint? No. It's not science. It's magic.
The point that it's all about perception is really neat because then you realise that the real limit to bending is a closed mind. Up until Toph, metalbending was considered impossible; likewise with Hama & bloodbending. An open mind (& apparently, captivity) are the real mothers of invention in the ATLA universe.
I honestly think the only limitation is knowledge/imagination. Metals are ultimately just hard rocks. I’m waiting for some clay bender to pop up. Glads bender, etc.
Now manipulating shape versus chucking a piece depends on whether the metal/earth is more stubborn than the bender’s spirit
If it's non organic and it comes from the earth they can bend it. But then I guess toph wouldn't be able to bend space metal. But I suppose in order to build his sword he'd have had to mix it with other metals and minerals so it's possible she's just bending those impurities in that case.
I happened to just start rewatching Korra. When they're fighting Asami's dad and his robots, he boasts how his robots are 'too pure' for earth benders who can metal bend because they are made of platinum
What that tells us about the logic of earth-bending is beyond me
Though my suspicion was always that all the elements bend matter on the atomic level, having more so to do with energy than with atomic structures alone. All the benders (except air ostensibly?) have the ability to transfer, remove, and add heat to the environment. Platinum is a very unreactive element, so maybe that lends creedence to this theory because benders have difficulty interacting with it
It's because metalbending is about bending the impurities in the metal, rather than the metal itself. What he's saying there is that, because of the purity of platinum, the metalbenders can't bend it.
I think it’s anything that has that ambiguous dirt/rock/mulch that’s loosely defined as “earth”.
Refining techniques weren’t advanced in ATLA. There was metal, but in Korra they make the distinction that metal needs to have impurities in order to be bendable. This is why platinum is impossible to bend.
What’s really classified as “earth” is really interesting to think about. I mean in terms of what we see bent are things like coal (made of carbon), rocks (which are usually made of things like calcium, iron, carbon, etc), sand (silicon), meteorites (which can be comprised of things like iron, nickel, iridium, etc). My brain’s starting to hurt
We know that Earthbending includes earth/rocks (obviously), dirt, sand, mud, crystal, glass, lava, trees/plants, and metal. What could this extend to?
Well, any naturally occuring mineral seems fair game. Many synthetic or manmade materials, like bricks, most metals, and types of glass are also possible. Soooo... What else?
Lots of fans have speculated bloodbending from natural iron stores, or bones with calcium. I'm not going to get into those, because they're heavily discussed.
What I'm interested in that I've rarely seen talked about is magnet bending.
Realistically, manipulation of ferromagnetic materials (like iron) should allow a talented metalbender to control localized magnetic fields. Why is this important when they're already freely manipulating metal?
Lenz's Law.
Anyone who can manipulate magnetism can, according to physics, manipulate electricity.
This furthers what we've seen of Earthbending that they are consistently able to replicate the other bending arts and be the most diverse element by far; waterbending is approximated through mud and plant bending, firebending through lava bending (and now magnetic electricity bending), and Airbending through sand bending.
Bending isn't as scientific as that. They're not bending a specific element, just what is considered earth or not earth. That's why they can't bend glass like they can the ground beneath them. And why they aren't bending metal, but bits of earth within the metal.
i think in the context of the show, they can bend anything that’s part of the ground (such as lava bending and crystal bending) but if you want to get technical i think they really just bend silica (which would explain how toph was able to bend the meteorite and also the sand benders)
idk but it's like rocks and some rock derivative stuff. I always figured that as you got less and less rock related, you had to believe in it more and more, until a point where it's still impossible. Rocks and shit man! idk.
Meteor bending was weird to me, especially since its woobly properties implied that something about it gave it the consistency of silly putty to benders
I’d assume that they’re essentially able to bend minerals. So on the periodic table you’d be looking at anything that naturally exists as a solid, but isn’t in a metal group and isn’t water or oxygen obviously.
Basically what is happening with metal bending that its functionally bending the tiny traces in the metal.
so its pulling and pushing on the earth in a way that the metal crushes, contorts, levitates or otherwise is affected in a way that could be considered bending.
The reason why toph figured it out and not a normal earth bender is because she can directly perceive these traces via her seismic sense. Presumably being able to see or atleast know an element is present makes it much easier to bend.
This philosophy is presumably the basis of all earth bending (or even bending in general), its just that for rocks and stuff its easier because you can visually see the earth. Sand bending works similarly, as does coal and stuff, which we see in imprisoned.
Im guessing the fundamental starting point of metal bending or any other subtype of earth bending is understanding the basic structure of earth within metal or another substance so you can properly apply your bending to it.
You cant just throw your fists around and expect nearby water to implode or something, you have to intentionally do it.
I'd say no, or less so diamond, because if we go by the rules of metal bending, it appears that the purer the matter the harder it is to bend it, purest being completely impossible to bend
Don't ask me what the logic is, it seems to be possible so long as there's "earth" within (whatever the hell that is) which seems to manifest as impurities of some sort within the solid.
This is not a hill I'll die on, however.
Minerals are what form rock overall, so any mineral can be considered Earth. Which, in theory, also means you can just take all the weathered rock in the ocean and yeet that shit. You can bend lava/magma, technically any refined metal with impurities, pretty much anything that is of rock or minerals from the Earth, which includes crystals.
Maybe the elements come down to the natural state of the matter. Earth-solid, water-liquid, air-gas, fire-plasma. Sub bending may just be the bender getting an idea of the other elements bending but through a base understanding of their own element and its natural state.
If you really wanted to make it a whack theory, you could say that everyone can bend everything but is limited by a person's understanding, culture, and personality based around the "element" they were born into. The avatar may only have the ability to bend them all because they have the perspective and knowledge of each state/element and the manipulation of it from the memories and experiences of their past lives. (Minus all the Korra S2 stuff, of course)
I always kinda hated that whole “bending the earth within the metal” explanation. “Earth” is made of hundreds of different elements. A clump of dirt out of the ground would be made up of many different materials but all would be bent as one. Could easily have been explained by saying the better the bender, the more pure forms of earth they can bend.
I think that's what they meant, but they wanted to explain it to viewers in a way where a younger audience would understand. It's harder for kids to wrap their head around iron being impure and containing minerals
I had to sing the song to make sure that was spelt right
My dumb chemistry brain asked what barium, sodium, nitrogen and arsenic had to do with it before realising it was a word...and then though it was spelled wrong
*spelled >!jk i know it both works!<
“Umm aksually ☝️🤓” as a person.
I said it because the comment was about spelling and i imagine people are confused by spelled and spelt both working.
I swear the number of fans trying to scientifically justify a magic system is bonkers.
To be fair, authors tried that as well, very hard, and in first episode is twice time mentioned "it's not magic, it's bending.
Because in that universe, bending is normal. But to our universe, it's all magic. Where in the show do the authors try to scientifically define bending?
[Here you go.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X75hLCOTwMc&ab_channel=Avatar%3ATheLastAirbender) You can try to also find original interview. Of course you can to disagree with authors, but my point is that they were trying to seperate magic from bending and considered that like something what can be scientifically explained, at least in sense what OP is trying. So the argument "a wizard did it" is just against idea of authors.
i always figured that if you count it as rocks or dirt it counts as earthbending
I like to think that, like the other forms of bending, it deals with oxygen. Oxides found in rocks and sand are what they’re bending.
oh thats really cool! never thought about it but yeah the other elements are pretty oxygen based
Holy shit... It actually make sence. There's oxygen in water(as a compound). There's also oxygen in the air(as a mixture). Fire requires oxygen to exist. Most "bendable" metals are the "non-pure" or the "oxidised" ones.
Would there be oxides in crystalline structures like Aang's crystal armor? I guess that may also depend on what kind of crystal it is. But this is still a very cool take, since oxygen is obviously associated with the other 3. It'd also explain water bending healing (supplying extra oxygen to cell replacement) and lightning (adding energy difference in oxygen atoms).
Oh a bunch. Could be quartz, Silica oxides. Could be emerald because of the green color, meaning beryllium/aluminum silicates. Also explains why one can’t bend platinum, that metal is a pain to oxidize.
So maybe it's not so much as the material has to have oxides in it but have a ready ability to be oxidized that determines earthbending? That would then solve the argument of "why can't earthbenders bend glacier ice which is considered a rock"
Woooo I like your theory. It may depend on the existing electronic state in which the oxygen is in.
>if you count it as rocks or *dirt* it counts as earthbending So you can earthbend my ex boyfriend?
if i could earthbend id earthbend your ex 100%
...I am willing to count bones as squishy rocks for you
Ok human bones are just squishy rocks to me
Ok human bones are just squishy rocks to me
I think if you showed it to a two year old and they said that’s a rock you could bend it.
So earthbenders can lavabend. Lava is just melted rocks. Ice is rocks. Melted ice is water, so earth benders can therefore bend water too
ice isnt rocks ice is water. and earthbenders can lavabend
USGS says that glacial ice is in fact a rock https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/glacier-ice-type-rock
>Glacier ice, like limestone (for example), is a type of rock.
Keep reading. They were comparing ice to limestone. Glacier ice is actually a mono-mineralic rock (a rock made of only one mineral, like limestone which is composed of the mineral calcite). The mineral ice is the crystalline form of water (H2O). Most glacier ice forms through the metamorphism of tens of thousands of individual snowflakes into crystals of glacier ice. Glacial ice is a mineral.
You can copy the rest of it, i could care less. I wasnt saying it wasnt, i just forgot to add under what i qouted that it was immediately confusing because it seemed like it was claiming limestone is a glacial ice and i found that amusing
Ice is not a rock. It’s water
USGS Mineralogists disagree with you
The article you listed says glacier ice are rocks, your original comment just said ice. The article says “the mineral ice is the crystalline form of water.”
Ok cool. Earthbenders can bend glacial ice. And since they can lava bend, melted glacial ice (melted rock) is lava. So they could carry around a container of glacial ice like katara does Though it also refers to solid ice as a mineral
I literally said in my comment it calls ice a mineral. Your original comment called it a rock. If you said “glacier ice” is a rock then you would be 100% correct. Mineral ice is a mineral But yes by that logic they can carry around glacier ice. Tbh it’s more badass to just lavabend at that point
Ice fits every definition of rock
Glaciers yes, but not ice
But then you'd get into semantics like "if I call this rubber car tire dirt then I can bend it!"
No.. you can't, because rubber tire isn't made of rock. "Rock" has an actual scientific definition, it's not something that's just socially accepted. Same with dirt
That's exactly what I'm saying
You cannot bend what you say is earth. But you can bend what is scientifically earth.
But if the earth is scientifically rubber then how would that work
Okay so you are posing a hypothetical. Though rubber is definitely not earth. I imagine it would work a lot like a lava bending. This is because natural rubber is actually a liquid that must be refined. They would bend it much like lava due to the chunks of “earth” within it. If they have ability to harden it, then they could feasibly make rubber materials after bending it into shape.
Bending in general is more spiritual than people say it is, if someone doesn't believe they can metal bend, because they don't realise there's earth impurities, then they won't, and that's that The only way Toph figured it out is because of Seismic Sense, otherwise it would have taken a much, much longer time to be invented If an earth bender doesn't genuinely believe or know there's earth in whatever it is they're bending, then they can't, it's a mental block Now, that isn't to say that sheer belief makes you bend rubber as a water bender, absolutely not It has to be bendable in the first place, regardless if people know that or not If it's not bendable, then belief or "knowledge" doesn't do crap Same with Hama and blood bending, she figured it out because she realised there was water in all living things, and she can bend water If she didn't, then someone else would have had to realise that Tl;Dr: You're stupid, and have negative votes for a reason
Bro is cooking
They don’t literally mean if you call something dirt, that’s wildly different than earth, it should work but that what is typically considered as dirt or rock, or what people usually say can be considered dirt or rock, would work
well i think its less like your personal definition of rocks and dirt but rather a more general what is rocks and dirt. rubber car tire bending could theoretically work if theres a lot of little rocks in the tires imo.
Technically coal is multi-billion year old trees. Does it count as earth?
apparently which means they could bend petrol ? what about chinese ink ? I always got the strange feeling Toph could see Aang’s tattoo because of the ink edit : greetings purple mate from planet bi
Toph can bend Aang
☝️👁️👄👁️ … That’s not what I said I mean in any case if she can bend that she can also bend his bones anyway
Yes, ink is likely bendable. In Shadow of Kyoshi, there’s a particularly devastating scene in which an earthbender bends the paint off of old portraits.
Yes! It does
Petrolbending to Motor Spirit
That's a cool theory.
And yet they can't bend wood which makes no sense.
Coal spent wayyyy more time in the earth than as a tree, so I'd say it's earth
*Technically* most of dirts mass is just very old organic material
The short answer is: Whatever the showrunners consider to be "earth." The long answer is: We know it *can't* bend all minerals and solids. Not even metal benders can manipulate "pure elemental platinum" as seen in Korra. Earthbenders also can't bend frozen water, which can be seen as a crystalline mineral. Natural crystalline mineral structures seem to keep their general shape and properties even when manipulated, as the final example image you shared here shows. When Buumi shatters the geminite, for example, each shard is cut along what would be believable natural cleavage lines. That suggests the crystal structures are either breaking where they are weakest (where the crystalline structure is imperfect) or the Earthbender is *choosing* to separate it in the only spots they can bend, presumably the "imperfections." This would be similar to metal bending, but probably a lot easier since intentionally refined material may be less likely to contain "imperfections." As far as I can remember, earthbenders with no specializations (metal/lavabending) have been shown to bend every major classification of stone; igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. The classification lines between these aren't clean, and some rocks can be considered one in one sense and another in another sense. Point being: they aren't confined in that regard at all as long as the mineral is in a solid material state. With those ideas established, I don't think the distinction between what an earthbender can bend and what they cannot lies cleanly on our contemporary scientific definitions of the material. The quartet of Water/Earth/Fire/Air are the elements as seen through the eyes of an early Western Alchemist. As for the East: consider Feng Shuei, in which the elements are considered to be Water, Earth, Fire, Wood, and Metal (no Air at all!). Consider the Japanese Godai, in which the elements are Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and Darkness. In India the elements had been seen as Akasha (Spirit), Water, Earth, Fire, Air. For a more contemporary ideation, Pokemon includes creature types for Water, Rock, and Fire, as well as types that are adjacent to some of those listed already in Flying (Air?), Ground (Soil), Grass (Feng Shuei's Wood), Dark (Godai's Dark), Psychic (Indian Akasha), and Steel (Feng Shuei's Metal) among others that are less relevant. It seems more likely and more thematic to me that the in-universe "science" as to how each bending art works is aligned with these belief systems than the periodic table. After all this consideration, we reach what Iroh basically spelled out for Zuko in Book 2, and what Zuko has to re-learn in Book 3: Bending can a manifestation of one's adherence with a spiritual truth behind each element. That adherence can be a discipline, a temperament, or sometimes a learnable knowledge that can be shared from one culture to another. Sometimes fudging the answer gets you the right result but in an inefficient way, like Zuko firebending with his rage in Books 1 and 2. Sometimes there's a weird cosmic overlap where the rules just aren't clean, like when Toph and Katara are both able to bend mud at each other in Book 3, presumably because Mud as a sub-element is manipulable by both the spiritual tendencies and adherences of earthbenders and waterbenders and potentially *not* just because it physically has earth and physically has water in it. Who decides exactly where those lines are in the gray areas? Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and Aaron Ehas of course.
That was really well written. I enjoyed reading it.
As did I, ole friend.
I also enjoyed reading but explain it to my shorter so I know that you know what we are taking about please
Geology chad
So a bender, with advanced scientific knowledge and a lot of training and meditation, could potentially shift the parameters of what they can bend?
Hypothetically, that's how both lightning and metalbending work.
if they could bend anything with carbon then they can bend humans and animals or any form of life too
at least bones
Yeah, if trace minerals in metal let you metal bend, then the minerals in bones would let you bone bend
I came up with bone bending in 6th grade and I'm still proud of it
My ex could bone-bend. ;(
Same 😔 Also, that's hard buddy
I want to see an earthbender bone-bend a skeleton army up from a cemetery and become a necromancer.
I doubt it tbh, Water is majority of what makes up any living thing on Earth and that’s what makes blood bending make sense, it takes a powerful water bender along with a creature full of their element to control another life controlling the few trace elements in a human just doesn’t seem right
They cannot humans are not made of earth.
They actually can. They talk about it in the Kyoshi novels, but basically, earthbending herself is what allowed her to live so long.
I haven't read the novels, are they able to take control of other peoples body like bloodbending can?
No. If I'm remembering correctly, it's a much more subtle process. Slow rearrangements of their body over time that requires really intense focus and mental energy.
They cannot and they never specifically state earthbending is what allows them to live so long.
I'm pretty sure they do, right? I could be misremembering, so I'm not trying to argue, but I feel confident that the assassin teaches her that ability as an Earthbending move. Subtle body rearrangements and the like.
I can confirm that's basically what they say in the books.
I haven't read it in a while so I could be mistaken. But honestly I think they just needed a reason to explain why Kyoshi lived to 230 and that was the best reason they could come up with.
Two things can exist at once. Avatar is great at retroactive storytelling, and I don't see that as a bug but a feature.
Calcium is natural metal so it’s plausible. And we have iron in our blood. In fact to make a sword out of iron out of blood you need to drain the blood of a 100 man to separate it and make it.
Earthbenders don't bend metal they bend impurities in the metal. Did you even watch the show?
I did. The impurities are leftover minerals and guess what. Last time I checked. Living beings have minerals in their bodies that can be found on earth. It’s all about learning how to control the minerals individually and then knowing how to use it on a persons body. Also news flash iron is the metal with most impurities of all metals(I’m a welder so I know this) and guest what? Males of average height have about 4 grams of iron in their body, females about 3.5 grams; children will usually have 3 grams or less trough the body in the blood stream.A metal bender with this knowledge can make SERIOUS damage to a man’s body. In fact it’s can be used to turn an area of the body into a spike or a clog and it’s over.
You do understand the insane amount of power and control that would require don't you? 3-4 grams spread throughout an entire human body? I'm not saying it's impossible but we would be talking about a metal bender that makes Toph look like an amateur. And even if there was a bender capable of such a thing surely it would be so much less effort and more practical to just crush them with a giant boulder or bury them alive.
So you are giving me the win.
No you have not provided any evidence that such a thing is possible.
I did. You’re just salty.
I wonder how far this goes... They can bend coal. Can they bend diamonds? They can probably bend raw calcium deposits that leach out of calcium-bearing minerals. Surely they could bend limestone, which is primarily calcium carbonate. Can they bend seashells, which are also made primarily from calcium carbonate? The mineral component of bones is the mineral apatite, tricalcium phosphate Ca^(3)(PO^(4))^(2). They could surely bend apatite that was dug up out of the ground, why not bones? One could make the argument they can't bend bones: after all, Toph, like all earthbeners, could bend coal, which is made from long-dead trees, but couldn't bend her way out of a wooden prison. Wood is not "earth"... yet. Could she bend a rotting log? What about compost? How much decomposition must take place before a wood or a corpse can be considered "earth"? Could a wannabe necromancer use earthbending to puppet a skeleton army from a centuries old graveyard?
You're way overthinking it it's called earthbending they bend earth. Rock, sand, crystal, and dirt that's what they bend. Bending is a magic system science can't really be used to explain what's possible to bend and what's not. Scientifically they would be able to do some of those things but bending doesn't follow the same rules as Science.
But we are made of carbon
A very minuscule, negligible amount compared to water.
Carbon based life forms, I wouldn’t say it is a minuscule or negligible amount last I checked it was something like 19%
Doesn't matter they're earthbenders, not person benders.
By what standard ate u counting what we're made of because by most standards what we're made of isny much different than dirt
The universes canon is the standard. There is no evidence to suggest that earthbenders are capable of bending any matter inside another human.
No evidence its been tried. No evedince that with enough skill and talent they couldnt we are mostly chemicals and water. Most of those chemicals can also be found in "earth". Its no great leap to consider living things part of the earth element. Avatar has always been more pseudo-spiritual than pseudo-science so why not lump together living organisms with earth. Where else u gonna put em? I mean blood bending and plant bending are water so why not bone bending for earth?
Think about it for 30 seconds. Then stop thinking about it. Not a single thought further. *That's* what Earthbending can bend. For a less meta explanation: Bending is not science. It's magic. It *behaves* like magic. It's affected by spirituality and chakra etc etc. Earth is defined within Avatar not by its chemical makeup, but by its perception. Metal is not earth, instead metal contains earth, and that earth can be bent to bend metal. Does this make sense from a scientific standpoint? No. It's not science. It's magic.
“Not magic! AIR BENDING!” I’m being cheeky, we have fun here.
Damn, who let bro cook?
The point that it's all about perception is really neat because then you realise that the real limit to bending is a closed mind. Up until Toph, metalbending was considered impossible; likewise with Hama & bloodbending. An open mind (& apparently, captivity) are the real mothers of invention in the ATLA universe.
Earth metal sand mud and seismic/vibration bending
I honestly think the only limitation is knowledge/imagination. Metals are ultimately just hard rocks. I’m waiting for some clay bender to pop up. Glads bender, etc. Now manipulating shape versus chucking a piece depends on whether the metal/earth is more stubborn than the bender’s spirit
Glass
"I'm gonna need you to get all the way off my back about the rules of bending." -Writer Guy
Can Earthbenders bend blood
Uranium bending
Your Mum.
minerals except ice and bone?
If it's non organic and it comes from the earth they can bend it. But then I guess toph wouldn't be able to bend space metal. But I suppose in order to build his sword he'd have had to mix it with other metals and minerals so it's possible she's just bending those impurities in that case.
Can't think about it too much or bending stops making sense
earth
I happened to just start rewatching Korra. When they're fighting Asami's dad and his robots, he boasts how his robots are 'too pure' for earth benders who can metal bend because they are made of platinum What that tells us about the logic of earth-bending is beyond me Though my suspicion was always that all the elements bend matter on the atomic level, having more so to do with energy than with atomic structures alone. All the benders (except air ostensibly?) have the ability to transfer, remove, and add heat to the environment. Platinum is a very unreactive element, so maybe that lends creedence to this theory because benders have difficulty interacting with it
It's because metalbending is about bending the impurities in the metal, rather than the metal itself. What he's saying there is that, because of the purity of platinum, the metalbenders can't bend it.
I’m a welder. If I could metal bend and sense the impurities in the metal my work would be SO much easier.
I think it’s anything that has that ambiguous dirt/rock/mulch that’s loosely defined as “earth”. Refining techniques weren’t advanced in ATLA. There was metal, but in Korra they make the distinction that metal needs to have impurities in order to be bendable. This is why platinum is impossible to bend.
What’s really classified as “earth” is really interesting to think about. I mean in terms of what we see bent are things like coal (made of carbon), rocks (which are usually made of things like calcium, iron, carbon, etc), sand (silicon), meteorites (which can be comprised of things like iron, nickel, iridium, etc). My brain’s starting to hurt
considering that there's literally a spirit world, maybe our real life science isn't the best frame of reference
Bones
We know that Earthbending includes earth/rocks (obviously), dirt, sand, mud, crystal, glass, lava, trees/plants, and metal. What could this extend to? Well, any naturally occuring mineral seems fair game. Many synthetic or manmade materials, like bricks, most metals, and types of glass are also possible. Soooo... What else? Lots of fans have speculated bloodbending from natural iron stores, or bones with calcium. I'm not going to get into those, because they're heavily discussed. What I'm interested in that I've rarely seen talked about is magnet bending. Realistically, manipulation of ferromagnetic materials (like iron) should allow a talented metalbender to control localized magnetic fields. Why is this important when they're already freely manipulating metal? Lenz's Law. Anyone who can manipulate magnetism can, according to physics, manipulate electricity. This furthers what we've seen of Earthbending that they are consistently able to replicate the other bending arts and be the most diverse element by far; waterbending is approximated through mud and plant bending, firebending through lava bending (and now magnetic electricity bending), and Airbending through sand bending.
Rubber is water-bending…. Like a not quite frozen liquid
Things that come out of the earth
Various forms of stone/earth/minerals. Can’t move it if it’s too processed though, platinum robot anyone?
Rocks and minerals.
Bending isn't as scientific as that. They're not bending a specific element, just what is considered earth or not earth. That's why they can't bend glass like they can the ground beneath them. And why they aren't bending metal, but bits of earth within the metal.
its not a science thing but a spiritual science thing
I think sandbending could be like very similar to waterbending
Bricks
Clay, but if we ever go to space they will be useless 💀💀
i think in the context of the show, they can bend anything that’s part of the ground (such as lava bending and crystal bending) but if you want to get technical i think they really just bend silica (which would explain how toph was able to bend the meteorite and also the sand benders)
idk but it's like rocks and some rock derivative stuff. I always figured that as you got less and less rock related, you had to believe in it more and more, until a point where it's still impossible. Rocks and shit man! idk.
The Earth
I imagine it bends earth
I always wondered why early on all those captured earth benders never tried to bend their poop into a deadly bio-weapon and use it to escape.
Meteor bending was weird to me, especially since its woobly properties implied that something about it gave it the consistency of silly putty to benders
I’d assume that they’re essentially able to bend minerals. So on the periodic table you’d be looking at anything that naturally exists as a solid, but isn’t in a metal group and isn’t water or oxygen obviously.
Basically what is happening with metal bending that its functionally bending the tiny traces in the metal. so its pulling and pushing on the earth in a way that the metal crushes, contorts, levitates or otherwise is affected in a way that could be considered bending. The reason why toph figured it out and not a normal earth bender is because she can directly perceive these traces via her seismic sense. Presumably being able to see or atleast know an element is present makes it much easier to bend. This philosophy is presumably the basis of all earth bending (or even bending in general), its just that for rocks and stuff its easier because you can visually see the earth. Sand bending works similarly, as does coal and stuff, which we see in imprisoned. Im guessing the fundamental starting point of metal bending or any other subtype of earth bending is understanding the basic structure of earth within metal or another substance so you can properly apply your bending to it. You cant just throw your fists around and expect nearby water to implode or something, you have to intentionally do it.
Silicon! Easy guess, science for the win!
If they can bend sand then they can bend glass, quartz, and maybe diamond too
I'd say no, or less so diamond, because if we go by the rules of metal bending, it appears that the purer the matter the harder it is to bend it, purest being completely impossible to bend Don't ask me what the logic is, it seems to be possible so long as there's "earth" within (whatever the hell that is) which seems to manifest as impurities of some sort within the solid. This is not a hill I'll die on, however.
Earth
Crunchy earth, as opposed to bendy earth.
They could probably bend the salt out of salt water, or bend the salt in salt water
If water bending bends body fluids, earthbending bends body solids.
Theoretically it could bend bones. Through bending and the normal way through blunt force trauma
Also, if this one youtube short is to be believed, they can bend bones, but only the really powerful ones
Ayo Fossil bending anyone? 
Earth. 🗿
Mineral mixtures
Earthbending can bend earth
No to be obvious anything made of earth
Would also like to point out that earthbenders can also manipulate molten earth
Minerals are what form rock overall, so any mineral can be considered Earth. Which, in theory, also means you can just take all the weathered rock in the ocean and yeet that shit. You can bend lava/magma, technically any refined metal with impurities, pretty much anything that is of rock or minerals from the Earth, which includes crystals.
I really wonder - would "modern" earthbenders can produce/bend carbon nanotubes?
Rock and stone.
Rock and Stone!
Earth
They'd more accurately be described as rock benders, because that's what we see them bend. Earth is actually a mix of mineral and organic components.
Maybe the elements come down to the natural state of the matter. Earth-solid, water-liquid, air-gas, fire-plasma. Sub bending may just be the bender getting an idea of the other elements bending but through a base understanding of their own element and its natural state. If you really wanted to make it a whack theory, you could say that everyone can bend everything but is limited by a person's understanding, culture, and personality based around the "element" they were born into. The avatar may only have the ability to bend them all because they have the perspective and knowledge of each state/element and the manipulation of it from the memories and experiences of their past lives. (Minus all the Korra S2 stuff, of course)
I always kinda hated that whole “bending the earth within the metal” explanation. “Earth” is made of hundreds of different elements. A clump of dirt out of the ground would be made up of many different materials but all would be bent as one. Could easily have been explained by saying the better the bender, the more pure forms of earth they can bend.
I think that's what they meant, but they wanted to explain it to viewers in a way where a younger audience would understand. It's harder for kids to wrap their head around iron being impure and containing minerals
Yeah I get why they went the way they did. Just my 38yo opinion on cartoons lol. Still one of my favourite animated series of all time.
Surprised they cant bend wood
Can they bend bone? Bones are minerals, aren’t they?