Who takes this?
Who takes this?
My gut says Toph, though Izumi judo tossing a charging Sloth makes me hesitate a little.
Izumi doesn’t have a whole lot in terms of range game that I recall. I’d say her best bet is to close and make it a H2H fight...not an easy task. She doesn’t have the speed feats of someone like *cough cough* Bradley to argue for a blitz IMO.
So long as Izumi can't fly or hang around in the air for a good while, Toph has quite the advantage. Not to mention being the inventor of the metalbending (and arguably still the best at it), Toph is no pushover. She can even repurpose metal in other objects for, say, armor or weaponry. Provided it has enough impurities.
: Cur capes figure coming in to pop Tophs head right off.:
Guys: Chou!
Chou: What? My hate of Acatar knows no borders. Like Brian Bendis and other stuff.
She's an alchemist at least on par with Ed (given she was his teacher and all)...so I think Izumi's being undersold a bit here.
I'm not really sure why Izumi can't just slap her hands on the ground and turn it all into cardboard as her first move. Or into giant metal spikes way too fast for Toph to bend it before her feet are shredded, considering that Toph has practically 0 aerial game herself.
[QUOTE=The Drunkard Kid;4909738]I'm not really sure why Izumi can't just slap her hands on the ground and turn it all into cardboard as her first move. Or into giant metal spikes way too fast for Toph to bend it before her feet are shredded, considering that Toph has practically 0 aerial game herself.[/QUOTE]
Well, Toph can sense the slightest movements on the ground, and react incredibly fast. Even faster than other experienced earthbenders (in her recruitment episode, and during the fall of Ba Sing Se, she completely dominates Earthbenders more than old enough to be her father, while badly outnumbered). Besides which, Toph doesn't need to use her hands to use her abilities, as it goes with any bender in the series. So not sure Izumi would have a chance to slap her hands on the ground. A quick stomp, and Toph could imprison her in rock, with her hands pinned to her sides. Or even underground with only her head sticking up (if we're talking about no holding back, not even the head would be up).
[QUOTE=Jackalope89;4909794]Well, Toph can sense the slightest movements on the ground, and react incredibly fast. Even faster than other experienced earthbenders (in her recruitment episode, and during the fall of Ba Sing Se, she completely dominates Earthbenders more than old enough to be her father, while badly outnumbered). Besides which, Toph doesn't need to use her hands to use her abilities, as it goes with any bender in the series. So not sure Izumi would have a chance to slap her hands on the ground. A quick stomp, and Toph could imprison her in rock, with her hands pinned to her sides. Or even underground with only her head sticking up (if we're talking about no holding back, not even the head would be up).[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I'm not seeing Toph blitz the lady that regularly makes Edward and Alphonse Elric (geniuses who casually dominate alchemists and soldiers more than old enough to be their fathers) look like amateurs in hand to hand combat unless she starts coughing blood due to her missing organs. She can almost definitely clap her hands before Toph can get rocks high enough to restrain them, at which point any Earth that is within arm's length of her, as well as anything of similar composition that is attached to it (which is to say, probably the entire arena floor) is probably not going to be Earth any longer and will probably be extremely dangerous to people whose entire fighting some revolves around keeping their bare feet on the ground.
[QUOTE=The Drunkard Kid;4909871]Yeah, I'm not seeing Toph blitz the lady that regularly makes Edward and Alphonse Elric (geniuses who casually dominate alchemists and soldiers more than old enough to be their fathers) look like amateurs in hand to hand combat unless she starts coughing blood due to her missing organs. She can almost definitely clap her hands before Toph can get rocks high enough to restrain them, at which point any Earth that is within arm's length of her, as well as anything of similar composition that is attached to it (which is to say, probably the entire arena floor) is probably not going to be Earth any longer and will probably be extremely dangerous to people whose entire fighting some revolves around keeping their bare feet on the ground.[/QUOTE]
High enough? Not hard. A simple shifting of Toph's foot, would have Izumi on the ground, and then embedded inside the ground. Unable to move. Or simply swallowed up by a hole.
[QUOTE=Jackalope89;4910014]High enough? Not hard. A simple shifting of Toph's foot, would have Izumi on the ground, and then embedded inside the ground. Unable to move. Or simply swallowed up by a hole.[/QUOTE]
Again, Izumi is really damn fast and extremely used to combat with Alchemists that can do things like that. Like, in the first anime, she was able to clap har hands, touch a wall, and create a series of chains that erupted out of the wall to impale a series of stone spikes that had already been fired at her from point blank range by Alex Louise Armstrong (who is basically Toph's spirit animal), and in the Brotherhood anime she got into a scene by creating a massive fist (with a pathway inside it and a door in the knuckles) to burst out of a wall and smack Sloth out of one of his superspeed charges, then casually flipped him when he tried to charge her directly.
Izumi and Toph would both have a general idea of what the other can do, and are both too used to fighting to get particularly stunned if they are caught off guard by a pit dropping them at the speed of gravity, or something that are slower than things that they have casually reacted to coming up try and cover their hands. The problem is that the instant after Izumi claps her hands, Toph is probably going to lose access to her Bending.
[QUOTE=The Drunkard Kid;4910178]Again, Izumi is really damn fast and extremely used to combat with Alchemists that can do things like that. Like, in the first anime, she was able to clap har hands, touch a wall, and create a series of chains that erupted out of the wall to impale a series of stone spikes that had already been fired at her from point blank range by Alex Louise Armstrong (who is basically Toph's spirit animal), and in the Brotherhood anime she got into a scene by creating a massive fist (with a pathway inside it and a door in the knuckles) to burst out of a wall and smack Sloth out of one of his superspeed charges, then casually flipped him when he tried to charge her directly.
Izumi and Toph would both have a general idea of what the other can do, and are both too used to fighting to get particularly stunned if they are caught off guard by a pit dropping them at the speed of gravity, or something that are slower than things that they have casually reacted to coming up try and cover their hands. The problem is that the instant after Izumi claps her hands, Toph is probably going to lose access to her Bending.[/QUOTE]
Except, Toph was the first metal bender (and arguably still is the best, even in her old age). And unless Izumi's metal is pure titanium or the likes, with little to no impurities, its just another weapon, upgraded at that, for Toph.
[QUOTE=Jackalope89;4910691]Except, Toph was the first metal bender (and arguably still is the best, even in her old age). And unless Izumi's metal is pure titanium or the likes, with little to no impurities, its just another weapon, upgraded at that, for Toph.[/QUOTE]
Considering that she is transforming them on the atomic/molecular scale, I don't know why there would be any impurities in them in the first place, assuming that she doesn't transform then into wood, or cardboard, or jagged shards of ice, etc... even assuming that Toph can identify it with her feet-radar and then manipulate it before it hits her.
Yeah they can both manipulate earth, but Izumi can stop earth from being earth. Also, doesn't Toph have problems functioning on sand like the arena is full of? I'm of the opinion that the arena should tweak itself to not give either side a notable advantage of disadvantage like that though.
[QUOTE=Captain Morgan;4910980]Yeah they can both manipulate earth, but Izumi can stop earth from being earth. Also, doesn't Toph have problems functioning on sand like the arena is full of? I'm of the opinion that the arena should tweak itself to not give either side a notable advantage of disadvantage like that though.[/QUOTE]
She seemed to have overcame her sand weakness in the Team Avatar beach party episode.
[QUOTE=Jackalope89;4910691]Except, Toph was the first metal bender (and arguably still is the best, even in her old age). And unless Izumi's metal is pure titanium or the likes, with little to no impurities, its just another weapon, upgraded at that, for Toph.[/QUOTE]
That's pretty much exactly what Izumi (or any other alchemist on her level) is capable of doing.