Talk:Fire Nation/@comment-70.1.2.93-20120412032822/@comment-74.124.136.234-20120531155835

First of all, many of you are forgetting one of the most important aspects of the Avatar world... BALANCE. The entire show is based around the idea that the earth and all of its inhabitance are a part of teh balance, which is helped along by the Avatar. You should all realize that fire is a part of that balance.

Fire is defined as "the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire). And there you have it -- fire produces some of the most important natural phenomenon that enable LIFE on our planet.

Without light, cells wouldn't be able to produce energy, and there would be no living organisms. Without heat, we would all freeze to death. Without carbon dioxide, one of those "various reaction products," Earth's atmosphere wouldn't be able to trap or release heat, and we would therefore either freeze to death due to lack of heat from the sun or burn to death due to too much exposure to the sun.

Fires also play an important role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem -- fires burn certain types of organic matter (i.e., wood), which frees up the energy that had been locked into the atoms of that matter and makes it available for new matter. Fires clear out dense growth and make space available for new species, which encourages plant and animal diversity. Even humans (firefighters!) sometimes purposefully set fires for exactly this reason.

And, to continue with points made earlier, humans have learned to use fire to: 1) cook their food, providing us with a wider range of nutrients that we wouldn't otherwise have; 2) provide ourselves with a source of heat, allowing us to live in cooler climates; 3) stave off certain noctournal predators, way back when; 4) use as fuel by releaseing usable energy from within natural materials such as wood, petroleum, natural gas, and coall; and, 5) create new materials and objects, from weapons to cars to generators. Without fire, none of us would have computers (or even electricity!) with which to argue in this blog.

Furthermore, every person in the world -- even in a world of fiction, such as the world of Avatar -- every person is different. We are all driven by different needs and desires, we are all the products of different backgrounds and histories, and we all find ourselves in unique situations. So, it's safe to say that there are "good" people and "bad" people in every existing culture, and that these people are, essentially, a product of their time.

So, before you argue that fire is only destructive and evil (and, therefore, firebenders are only destructive and evil), trying doing some research! Or, better yet, try using your brains first.