>>104182061I think the logic goes, that since a wooden cage (or metal before she learned) can apparently prevent her from bending the earth a few feet outside the cage, that she probably can’t sense things more than a few inches away from direct contact with her.
(Has to be at least a few inches of range because she could still totally float her space-metal bracelet.)
Also there’s the fact that she can’t be seismically sensing stuff in the air, which did seem to be her normal method of seeing though earth bending.
Alternatively maybe earth benders just need to make an initial contact with a piece of earth to establish control, and presumably sensing, and after that they have a fair bit of range for still control if it.
Presumably this means they wouldn’t be able to effect, or sense earth that’s either falling in them or being thrown at them directly by another bender.
