Talk:Airbending/@comment-76.24.189.176-20120121100340/@comment-4521003-20120211193043

Wonderful analysis, but there's a problem: Firebenders don't control the gas or smoke, they control the fire. Smoke is largely leftover carbon, which is not technically a part of fire but of what it burns. Yes, they use the power of their breath to aid their bending, but that does not mean they actually bend the air. Air is part of the fuel and the product, not the fire itself. Interesting idea with burning chi, but from a chemistry standpoint chi would have to be a source of carbon and hydrogen to fuel a fire that way, and I'm pretty it isn't. So that leaves the question of what Firebenders burn. It seems to me that Firebenders skip the chemical reaction and provide the energy themselves. Not burning chi, because that implies a chemical reaction. I mean that it seems they deal directly with the energy to create fire, not with the source of energy. If Firebenders controlled the gases involved with normal fire, they'd be Airbenders and Airbenders could also be Firebenders. But they aren't. Instead, it appears that Firebenders deal with what fire actually is: light. The heat we feel is just infrared light (which is still light, even though we can't see it), and the red, orange, and yellow we see is just light energy that was a high enough frequency to reach our visual range. So in essence, fire is light. I know electricity is not fire, but I was pointing out that both involve the energy of electrons. The separation of yin and yang is definitely the separation of positive and negative particles, creating immense potential energy and a charged path for the lightning to follow. If Firebenders can do that, then it stands to reason that they also control fire on the sub-atomic level rather than controlling the gases and other fuels and products involved.

In summary: Yes, fire creates poisonous gas. That does not mean Firebenders can control it. The gas is not fire, so I see no reason Firebenders could bend poisonous gas and poison flames.

Here's some food for thought: If Firebenders could control poisonous gas, then would Roku have died from it when battling the volcano?