Talk:Earthbender
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I think we're confusing Earthbending with Firebending here. Earthbending does not rely on SHEER strength alone, it has many strong defenses. Firebending is the one with virtually almost no defense, but instead relys on it's heavy offense as it's defense.
- I just don't want to diverge overmuch from the import of the official site. "Exeptionally muscular Earthbenders use their strength to overpower opponents." From a more editorial standpoint, I don't think by mentioning their great strength, we're saying it's sheer strength alone, just that strength's the prominent characteristic of their battle strategy, even in defensive manevers. (Levitating giant rocks and holding them there as shields! :P) Nor does strength necessarily mean "purely offensive." Remember the preceding sentence does mention balance of offensive and defensive maneuvers. Actually, in the case of Firebenders, I think it's more fierce intensity and focus than strength, judging by their style of focused barrage.--Buinne 05:06, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
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- "Judge me by my size will you?" -- Yoda H2P 04:42, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] Symbol
In The Earth Kingdom and the Avatar State we constantly see a symbol of a circle with a square in it. Is this not the symbol of Earthbenders?
No its happens to be the symbol of the Earth Kingdom as a whole. The simple of the style of bending is different.
[edit] Ferrokinetics/Magnetism
I don't understand how the assumption can be made that Earthbenders climb walls by magnetizing their limbs. Although I do not know when an Earthbender has ever climbed up a wall, I do not think that any form of magetism would be involved as they cannot influence metal. Instead, it would be more logical to assume that they are 'pulling'-for lack of a better term, on the rock with their Bending abilities.
Comes from the Avatar website at Nick, we're just going off that H2P 06:15, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Oh, I did not know that; the website would probably be cannon, then? Although it does seem contradictory-unless only certain Earthbenders can affect magnetism...--Romuluscrohns 17:07, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Did it state specificly that they used magnetism, or it did it just mention them climbing up walls?--Romulus 03:10, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
It seems very, very contradictory for Earthbenders to have ferrokinetic abilities and no ability to bend metal. At the very least the presence of such abilities would suggest that there could be a Metalbending specialty, just as Sandbenders specialize in sand, Waterbenders can specialize in living matter (Foggy Swamp style), and Firebenders can learn to use lightning. --Sean Patrick Santos 01:19, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
Hey, speaking of magnetism, I HIGHLY doubt that the dai li's gloves are operated via ferrokinetics. It just makes no sense. They control them the same way they control levitating rocks, by bending itself. To magnetize things that you intend to shoot at someone and manipulate into grabbing them is pointless, and it's definitely not enough to cause the gloves to open and release.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.61.200.253 (talk)
In the magnetism section it says that each kind of bending has a sub-skill. That is not true, there's no known Airbending sub-skill, unless someone considers the way Aang pulled his staff in the pilot a form of pyschokinesis. The opening phrase must be changed.
- Just because it hasn't been shown doesn't mean there isn't one. I'm pretty sure the sub-skill came from a statement by one of the creators or Sifu but I can't remember exactly. I'll go digging for the source again. H2P (Yell at me for what I've done) 15:10, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
I still am not convinced that Earthbenders can become magnetic. Climbing up a wall or sticking to the ceiling can be accomplished by wearing gloves and shoes of earth as demonstrated by the Dai Li; they are merely pulling the rock towards them (and in the process, being pulled back). The opposite effect was shown in Bitter Work when Aang tried to move a boulder with Earthbending but he pushed away instead. Does the site (which I cannot access easily because I have dial-up) specifically say that Earthbenders can affect magnetism or does it just state that they can climb up walls?
- Yes. H2P (Yell at me for what I've done) 01:25, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
As for the 'sub-bending'; water benders doe not bend living matter, but the water inside of it (and through extension, the Chi using the water), Sandbenders are realy jsut Earthbenders with a different style due to lack of most types of Earth (other than sand, which they obviously use). Metalbending most likely does not exist, as it would not fit in with the themes presented so far and they fit with the four Bending Arts. Lightning is not so much a different type of firebending, as it seems (based on Iroh's explanations) that it is merely a 'pure' form of Firebending. It gives the impression that are in fact manipulators of energy, with heat (and fire) being the easiest and simplest form of expressing it. Long story short; it does not really seem like there are any sub-types, so much as variations on the same core skills and abilities. If someone could possibly post a quote from the Nick site it would be greatly appreciated and I'm not trying to disagree, just help clarify things? I'm wondering also if we can trust all oof the Nick site info as being cannon if they do actaully state that Earthbenders are ferrokinetic. --Romulus 00:54, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
Okay, let's just clear this up, has there been any on-screen information to imply any sort of magnetic ability on the part of the Earthbenders? Any at all? Simply clinging to a vertical surface is not an implication of magnetic ability, since they're clinging to stone walls/ceilings (Which Earthbenders can control) and wearing stone gloves/boots (Which Earthbenders can also control). As people have mentioned here on this very talk page, for all we know they were just bending their boots and holding them in place against the wall, just like Aang bends air against his glider to make himself fly; he's not bending gravity or anything like that.
The only off-screen information I've seen has been a few of the special features on the Book 1 DVD's, and I haven't even watched every one yet, so I've not seen any creator commentary or interview discussing magnetism, and maybe I'm just missing something, but if all that counts as canon is what you see on screen, then we've seen no magnetism. Does the Nick website really count as canon, cause if not, then magnetism doesn't have a leg to stand on.
I'm going to put a tag on the main page noting that its only been mentioned on the web-page and hasn't been seen on the show, because otherwise it still hasn't really been in the show yet. JBK405 03:50, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
New issues.
There are only two links at the bottom of this page, I followed both, and neither one mentioned magnetism. At all. One links to a video clip that also came with the DVD, the martial arts consultant explaining where Earthbending came from, and the other linked to an interview with the same guy. I also read other interviews on that page, including the directors. Magnetism is nowhere to be found.
Now maybe it's somewhere else on the Nickelodeon web-site, or some other place, but that's not listed as a source. All we have are these two links, and it's not there or in the show. Where did this come from? JBK405 20:59, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
- From Nick.com: "Earthbenders also posses the ability to 'magnatize' thier limbs, allowing them to scale shear walls and cliffs." H2P (Yell at me for what I've done) 01:57, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
Okay, people are still adding back the information saying that the Dai Li control their gloves through magnetism and that Toph's rock-armor was also magnetic, and they say say that the creators confirmed that at PMX.
Now, I have reverted that once again, but this time only because I have no way to verify that information since they didn't actually give a source on the main page (Meaning there's no link to a transcript of whatever the creators aid, no link to a video clip, no description of the newspaper article it was reported in, or anything else like that). For whoever put that information back, I will stop reverting it as soon as you present the source. A link, a newspaper article date and page number, just give us something to check and I'll stop bothering. JBK405 15:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] 'Puppet Mastery'
Shouldn't the 'Puppet Mastery' topic be a subtopic under techniques?
[edit] Mentalbending
You're going to be needing a Metalbending section beneath Sandbending, it seems to be an advanced Earthbender technique. --69.136.111.100 17:41, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
- Which only Toph can do. A slight mention of it should be enough. H2P (Yell at me for what I've done) 19:56, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
It is far from cannon to say that toph bends using only the trace elements of earth in metal. The imagery suggests something like this, but this version of the article goes too far. It's just as rational to assume that she can bend metal without earth or crystal impurities. 66.41.66.213 05:59, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
