Talk:Airbending/@comment-76.24.189.176-20120121100340/@comment-76.24.189.176-20120211190002

Well, I'm no chemist major to be honest. But, I know more than most people and I do know a decent amount about chemistry. Just about everything you said is correct near as I can tell. However, it's still quite a bit more complicated than that. Lightning in particular was described as "separating the yin from the yang..." which does seem very similar to negative and positive particles in atoms (electron/protons) since it's unlikely they'd have known about that stuff at that time. However, fire isn't electricity so the properties are different.

Fire can not exist without something for it to burn off of and oxygen. This is what you might consider to be "common knowledge" so it should be fairly easy to make the following conclusion:

It's likely they use there spiritual energy or Chi as a burning source. This energy isn't specifically firebending energy, but the natural spiritual energy of the human body/soul that we know exists in the Avatar universe. This would be same energy waterbenders can manipulate to speed up the natural healing process. This would explain why most flames that are bended go out fairly quickly, with the exception of surrounding things that catch fire and a few longer burning techniques that appear more advanced and to take up more energy. It's also likely that when Iro said firebending "comes from the breath" that it is a way of oxidizing the flames for extra intensity and/or (beside relying on just the oxygen in the atmosphere which would yield weaker flames) as we inhale air for oxygen when we breath. But what do we exhale? It's carbon dioxide. Part oxygen, and also part carbon. Both of those elements can combine to make both carbon dioxide C02 (which in extreme cases would eventually suffocate us if enough of it mixed into the air in a closed space because we wouldn't be able to breath regular air) and more realistically deadly carbon monoxide, which simply is CO. The only difference between the two is carbon monoxide has less oxygen parts per carbon part, thereby making it poisonous to us. So do to this, an experienced airbender would possibly be able to manipulate the air into a sort of poisonous gas with the right training and technique, probably having to do with unorthodox exhaling methods of some sort. Due to the nature of the pacifist monks who were the airbenders, it is highly unlikely they discovered this or would even want to.

On the other hand, an experienced firebender who trained themselves in a certain way might be able to create poison gas as well. It would likely have to do with the flame/smoke composition. Firebending doesn't tend to leave a lot of smoke, but there were instances where it certainly left some. If they can do that, it might be possible for firebenders to harness smoke, just as they are able to harness heat by itself without using flames. A more experienced firebender could learn to specialize in heat techniques and take it much further. The same can likely be done with smoke. And if they can harness smoke, then the smoke can release poisonous gases. The smoke itself can often seriously injure, or even kill humans due to toxins in it (which can vary to things other than carbon based gasses, but since that is what we exhale it is technically all they would need to work with). So it isn't that unfathomable. If they can create poisonous gas, it isn't a stretch to believe they may also be able to poison the flames they bend through some process. Again, poison flames would have to be fueled a certain way. This would obviously require different firebending techniques than we have seen. My point was a firebender specialized in the area would likely be able to make it happen if they knew how.

Now there is the possibility no firebender would bother with this indirect approach of poison gas as just bending regular flames is probably more effective in most cases. We never saw a firebender that specialized in heat by itself. However, you must agree that at this point it is far more likely there would be a unique firebender who would discover a way to do this than an airbender based on numbers and the varying philosophies of each group. This and the potential for poisonous flames is why it would probably suit firebenders better. Also, if an airbender wanted to suffocate someone, they could just create a vacuum. There would be less need for them to create poisonous gas so I don't see it as an airbending sub ability that would likely be used or proven. However, I'd take unlikely over nothing.