Throughout DEATH BATTLE!, we've seen all manner of weapons and abilities. But these two combatants command the very earth around them.
Gaara, of the Desert. And Toph Beifong, the Blind Bandit.
The seventeenth episode in the second season stars a battle of child prodigies, both of whom can perform unbelievable feats with all things rock and ground. The hosts will see sand pit against metal, a cold heart against a sharp tongue, for Gaara of the Desert and Toph Beifong will shake the very earth itself and prove themselves worthy of triumphing in a death battle.
The episode starts off with Wiz and Boomstick covering the lore behind the life of Gaara, the only child of Rasa, the fourth Kazekage. Born to his father's domain, the village hidden in the sands known as Sunagakure, Gaara's birth came at the expense of his mother thanks to his father's machinations; Rasa planned to seal Shukaku, one of the nine Tailed Beasts, within his son. The process succeeded, giving Gaara his trademark harenkinetic abilities, but Shukaku, a tailed beast who despises humans, attacked and killed innocents due to Gaara's lack of control. The people of Sunagakure began to hate and fear Gaara thanks to Shukaku's actions, branding him as an outcast. Gaara's outlook on life began to change, seeing his own as the only one worth watching out for; and so, he would turn himself into the weapon his father sought to create.
Being the vessel of Shukaku grants Gaara a plethora of earth-related powers, predominantly centered around sand. Amidst his collection of abilities, he can control its density, mentally control it to crush enemies, fly, crush the earth to make more sand, and even create shields strong enough to protect a village. Gaara is able to access Shukaku's power via chakra, a mystical energy preserved for such purposes. In addition to being able to create more sand at will, Gaara also always carries a gourd with him that is not only linked to his chakra, granting him further techniques, but also possesses gold dust and carries the essence of his mother within it, meaning the sand can protect Gaara automatically, all supplemented by an armor made of sand that bears his likeness and surrounds him.
That said, his sand is not limitless. His abilities with it are only possible based off of how much chakra he has remaining out of a limited supply, and after he was spiritually purged and killed, no longer possess Shukaku. But in this fight, he may not even need the Tailed Beast; from the sheltered youth he once was, Gaara grew to become a hero of men, leading the charge in the Fourth Shinobi War and even defeating his father, growing to become the next Kazekage and ultimately triumph over the past his life was once.
- Gaara: (walks past Naruto and Shikamaru after his sand drags a helpless man down a hallway)
With the study of Gaara complete, Wizard and Boomstick shift topics to focus on Toph Beifong, the only child of the Earth Kingdom's Beifong family. Lao and Poppy, Toph's parents, pampered their daughter and groomed her to become a respected member of society, their way of making life easier for their daughter, who was born blind. Toph would soon have enough of her parents spoiling her and ran away from home, losing her way in a cave. Thankfully, she would find kindred spirits in the form of badgermoles, creatures who were also blind, and would teach her the art of earthbending. Her talent in the craft would lead her to conquer underground earthbending fighting circuits and become the earthbending mentor to Avatar Aang.
Of course, her proficiency in the earthbending art comes from the time she spent being with the badgermoles. Toph thus picked up on a number of earthbending talents, moreso than a non-blind bender would. Using motions inspired by the chow gar praying mantis branch of kung fu, she can manipulate rock and stone of all kinds, able to make it rise up as pillars or walls or even hurl boulders as projectiles. In addition, Toph can control similar earth-based material, like sand or mud, and make it change between various forms. To aid these abilities, Toph is also able to use a technique known as seismic sense to feel vibrations in the ground made by objects that make contact with it; essentially sonar and her method of sight. But above all else, the crown jewel of Toph's fighting style is metalbending, once thought to be impossible, but performed by locating the earth in processed metals and bending that, thus bending the metal itself by extension.
But even the blind bandit herself has some problems that her earthbending prowess should not count out. Metalbending, while a formidable tactic, is rendered useless against extremely purified metals such as platinum. In addition, though she can bend earth, she is also dependent on it; being vulnerable to attacks based in the air and losing her seismic sense on non-earth based objects. Yet such flaws failed to put down Toph. From dueling Omashu's King Bumi to a standstill, to teaching how to bend metal, a feat once thought impossible, to even becoming a teacher to a new Avatar, Toph has earned the right to be labeled one of the greatest earthbenders of her time.
- Toph Beifong: (leaps atop a metal cage she just bent her way out of) I am the greatest earthbender in the world! Don't you two dunderheads* ever forget it! (leaps off the cage before skating away on a pillar of earth)
With the combatants studied and all bases covered, there's nothing else left to do. It's time for a death battle!
A clearing, one of many in the middle of a vast chain of mountains is where the scene opens, with Gaara the single figure upon it. His eyes closed, he appears to be deeply in thought, but the silence is soon broken by a chamber opening up not far away; from the chamber's opening door is Toph, who appears to be visiting for some reason. Gaara gives her fair warning she intrudes on sacred ground and demands her to leave. Toph has none of it and dares Gaara to force her out.
FIGHT!
The first move in the fight goes to the blind bandit, launching a barrage of stones at Gaara, but the sand in Gaara's gourd lives up to its name of the Absolute Defense, shattering the rocks without Gaara having to so much as move an inch. He soon returns fire with a volley of sand that cuts into the rocks Toph now has protecting her, and like those before, Gaara's sand smashes it into nothing. The duo take a moment to comment on the other's strengths; Gaara on how Toph can control stone as easily as he can sand, Toph on how Gaara is resourceful enough to turn her stone into sand for his own usage.
The fight picks its pace back up not a moment later, with Gaara nimbly evading stones erupting from the ground, giving Toph enough time to ride a boulder to her opposition. Gaara, on the other hand, needs some time of his own to form out an attack plan, and with perfect timing, uses the Absolute Defense to shield himself right as Toph sends out a metalbending chain towards the barrier, with a set of spikes jutting out of it for good measure. That which would have ended the battle only prolongs it a touch longer, as Toph's seismic sense lets her escape death and leap off the boulder, leaving it to its fate. But, to Toph's dismay, the Absolute Defense remains absolute, even after smashing it with a colossal pillar, a problem she soon fixes when she rips one of the spikes out of the Absolute Defense and jabs the future Kazekage right out of the shield. The face on his sand armor begins to crack, but he shares a brief dialogue with Toph before carrying on. As he levitates about a pillar of sand, the gourd releases its sand, now augmented by gold dust, to assault Toph. Stones that could once hold up against Gaara's attacks are now suddenly shattered with ease, a sand arm snatching the Avatar's earthbending sifu. The arm is short lived when Toph is able to bend her way out of it, but faces down a long-reaching wave of sand that floods the battlefield. Earth Rumble's premiere champion arises from the depths aboard a stone column, but once more, Gaara ensnares her, this time in an orb of sand, and crushes it with Toph still inside. Gaara looks towards the horizon, for the fight, as he says, is done.
Or, at least it would be, if not for Toph's last minute armor shielding her from the crushing force. The former carrier of Shukaku looks on in awe, but awe gives way to fear as Toph follows up immediately with an onslaught of rocks which Gaara has to act to defend against, though in the process, loses track of Toph. She reappears amidst a series of stone pillars and makes quick work of Gaara's gold dust-infused sand before closing the distance and striking Gaara directly. The force of her blow cracks Gaara's face again; though this time, Gaara's sand armor works against him, turning it into a brittle yet hard stone that crushes its master. The yell echoes across the mountains as a gush of blood soars skyward. Toph wraps the fight off by throwing the now-practically-glass Gaara against the desert floor, an audible "crunch" accompanying it. Now is the fight done, and this time, nothing can prove Toph wrong.
K.O.!
Boomstick is, to put it gently, less than pleased at Gaara's loss, but Wizard is quick to explain his reasoning to him. Gaara's sand is indeed a terrifying force to combat, but against Toph, it's nothing to worry about. While Toph is indeed vulnerable to attacks not rooted to earth, earth itself is an exception; the extra features included on the DVD version of The Last Airbender's second season make note of a Word of God statement on Toph's abilities, namely, that she can sense earth, even when it's in midair. As a result, her earthbending and her seismic sense allowed her to sense Gaara's attacks thanks to their being earth-based. On top of this, Gaara's sand, though both containing his mother's essence and his father's gold dust, is still sand she can manipulate, and the gold contains elements that can be subjected to metalbending, unlike platinum, meaning Toph's versatility works in her favor once again; and lastly, to top it all off, Gaara's sand armor meant that it could give away its owner's location to Toph and consumes vast amounts of his chakra, making it harder for Gaara to perform other techniques while Toph could easily counter whatever came her way. Both fighters are forced to be reckoned with, but for Gaara, his skill in one field compared to the numerous ones his opponent possesses means victory slips away from him.
- Boomstick: Gaara couldn't sand up to Toph. I know you're floored. I really ground that one in, didn't I? What can I say, it's my earthly delight.
Wiz: (groans) The winner is Toph Beifong!
Gaara vs. Toph Beifong contains examples of:
- Crippling Overspecialization: Sure, Gaara has plenty of things to spice up his sand, but the competition has a lot more tricks up their sleeve overall.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The camera spares us from seeing both Gaara's body being crushed by his own sand armor and its being shattered on the desert floor.
