r/AvatarMemes • u/LilyKarinss Least delusional Azulaang shipper 🔥 • Jun 04 '25

LoK This is what PEAK firebending defensive technique looks like

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u/JackofClubs77 Jun 04 '25

I remember making an Earthbender OC as a kid who’s whole shtick was that he floated boulders around his head, broke them into smaller stone, and then fired them like drones. Ironically, this is just about the only way for an Earthbender to defeat Toph, purely by nature of “She can’t actually see it”

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u/Darkened_Auras Earthbender 🗿 Jun 04 '25

Canonically, Toph can sense floating earth, her powers extend to that. Floating things that aren't earth are invisible but there's basically no way for an earthbender to catch her off guard

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u/Bot_Number_7 Jun 05 '25

Does this mean Toph is super weak against waterbenders who can levitate a circle of water and blast her with ice chunks she can't detect? This maneuver is a very popular one for waterbenders to use by the way (Kya does it in her fight against Zaheer for example).

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u/Professional_Denizen Jun 05 '25

Toph can sense how her opponent’s body moves, and bending is very good at correlating a user’s movement with the effect they produce.

Even without that, which I’m not actually 100% on, she can definitely sense your stance since feet touch the earth. Anything that relies on footwork, like most bending, is more or less predictable from that.

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u/Bot_Number_7 Jun 05 '25

Well, waterbenders can also raise themselves on a water tornado. Sure, Toph can probably still sense their position, but she probably can't read the movements of their body through the water spiral.

I feel that Toph actually has a terrible matchup against any decent waterbender with access to a supply of water. It's not like she's fought any waterbenders seriously in the show other than the friendly sparring match with Katara, right?

Also, Ming Hua is a psychic waterbender, so Toph would lose instantly to her if she has any supply of water, right?

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u/notfirearmbeam Jun 08 '25

This is all true ppl just don't like the answer bc Toph is the GOAT, but these kind of matchup checks are part of what makes the magic system so interesting. Except fire which is so ass - but my headcanon is that this is a metaphor for success using violence coming down to what you will do rather than what you can do. We see with Aang directly that fire can hurt people so easily it happens on accident, so of course those people can cause more damage with less deliberate effort