Woodbending

[Leaf]

Is wood the only Chinese element that cannot be bent?

Earth is covered.
Water is covered.
Fire is covered.
Metal is covered by Earth.

But is woodbending possible? I heard that it probably could by a waterbender. What does Distant Horizon think about this?

[ILZ]

Well when Katara and Toph were in prison in 'The Runaway' neither of them could bend the wooden bars and both of them were master benders. I would say that wood isn't really covered under the other four elements. A waterbender could probably bend a living tree but once the wood has been dried there would be no way for a waterbender to bend it.

[Leaf]

So would this dismiss the possibility entirely or could a bender still invent it?

I keep thinking of what Sokka said (2:02) at the trial of Yakone when he was talking about rare abilities once thought to be impossible becoming possible and rather or not woodbending is an absolute impossible material to bend.

Whenever I see this flashback I still get goosebumps and made me cry realizing that Aang is no longer with us. I really hope we can have more flashbacks of the original gaang.

Technically speaking, isn't metal still impossible because benders aren't actually bending the metal itself, but the raw earth it's made up of? Hence why metalbenders cannot bend metals such as platinum?

[Paraiba Ocean]

The elements in Avatar are based off the 4 elements originally proposed by Greek philosophers.

Wood was an element in Chinese classical element theory, along with Metal, Water, Fire, and Earth. So I think the reason wood is not really considered an element is because they're trying to keep it consistent with the Hellenistic theory, or at least make it a derivative.

ie, swampbending/bloodbending are all derivatives of waterbending, as they are focusing on the water in the vines/blood. Metalbending is concentrating on the earth found in the metal, which means most likely, the metal being used by such benders is not pure/very refined (as you said, they shouldn't be able to bend things like platinum - or even steel). Hypothetically, one could say a waterbender should be able to control the water within wood, but I don't suspect we'll ever come across a "woodbender" in the same respects as an airbender.

[Alouncara]

I feel like Earthbending is the most subjective of all bending.
What constitutes as earth?
How come they can bend some elements (as in chemical elements) but not others?

[Paraiba Ocean]

To what chemical element(s) are you referring? I haven't seen any chemical elements bended in the series to my recollection.

[airnomadlaker]

Since wood comes from living organisms, I think that the only way to bend it would be to bend water inside of it. If you could bend wood, you might as well be able to bend other organic material like skin.

[Leaf]

Why would woodbending be a thing?

OP, you dumb af.