Talk:Airbending/@comment-173.74.225.209-20120515234723/@comment-67.162.119.49-20120521155906

Let me put this into perspective:

Firebenders can create lightning because fire is energy. It is not a chemical reaction, and there is no chemical formula for fire. Lightning is the charging of air molecules with electricity. It makes perfect sense for Firebenders to lightningbend because one doesn't have to be an airbender to use the air molecules already in the... well, the air. Using energy itself (fire) compressed to such a degree that it produces an electrical charge that reacts with the molecules in the air to create a bolt of lightning belongs in the category of bending pure energy.

This is not to be confused with "Energybending" as in taking someone's bending away by literally draining the energy from their body.

This also makes sense as to why Airbenders cannot lightningbend because Airbenders do not bend an energetic force. Air is made up of Oxygen, Hydrogen, and all that good stuff that, you guessed it, can be written out in a chemical equation. Heat is the catalyst for lightning, and heat causes the air to combust. Think of Combustion man making everything explode with his mind, but instead of blowing things up (outward combustion), refining it to such a degree that it sparks and creates lightning (inward combustion).

NOW, soundbending would be possible (and lightbending probable) as light and sound are transfered through airwaves. Think of it less like the bending of sound and light themselves (as light is an energy [which would be more suited for Firebending, being that heat and fire are energies themselves], and sound is just vibrating airwaves), and think of it more like bending the airwaves around light and sound to make them, let's say, unrecognizable or redirected somehow.

Lastly, plantbending is... somewhat relative to earthbending, but it's not about manipulating the plants themselves. It's more about controlling the water in the plants to manipulate their movement. See, plantbending isn't really about making the plants grow so much as it's about making the plants move to one's advantage. However, this leaves the plothole of how Yu made the plants grow when he covered himself in Vines and seaweed. Then again, while he was a Vine golem, he was still, literally, in the swamp, which could be inferred that he replaced lost vines by pulling more from the swamp whereas he never "regrew" as a seaweed golem on land. Plantbending is to plants as bloodbending is to humans.

tl;dr, Fire is energy, thus lightning. Sound and light travel on airwaves, thus sound and lightbending being possible with airbending. Plantbending is bloodbending, but on plants.