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Beast_mode999

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#1  Edited By Beast_mode999

Ok this has always bugged me. Shouldn't lighting bending be an water bending technique? Lightning is formed by I pace particals colliding with each other at high rates

"When the ground is hot, it heats the air above it. This warm air rises. As the air rises, water vapour cools and forms a cloud. When air continues to rise, the cloud gets bigger and bigger. In the tops of the clouds, temperature is below freezing and the water vapour turns into ice.

Now, the cloud becomes a thundercloud. Lots of small bits of ice bump into each other as they move around. All these collisions cause a build up of electrical charge.

Eventually, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. Lighter, positively charged particles form at the top of the cloud. Heavier, negatively charged particles sink to the bottom of the cloud.

When the positive and negative charges grow large enough, a giant spark - lightning - occurs between the two charges within the cloud. This is like a static electricity sparks you see, but much bigger."

http://www.planet-science.com/categories/over-11s/natural-world/2012/06/what-causes-lightning.aspx

Also shouldn't water beepers be able to create storms or tornadoes if they wanted to?

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anthp2000

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#2 anthp2000  Moderator

1. tbh, I never understood why lightning fits to any of the 4 elements. Iroh said it's called "the cold blooded fire", so I guess they chose it cause it's fast and powerful which is what firebending is all about. Furthermore, it's destructive, deadly and dangerous, characteristics that the "evil Fire Nation" of ATLA is meant to have. It was chosen as the way to kill Aang and dramatically end the Avatar Circle and it fits with personalities like Ozai or Azula's. "Its precise and deadly, like Azula". And they would need something other than heatbending. Something more classy... The way they use their 2 fingers to generate it is pretty classy.

2. No, they cannot create storms or tornadoes...

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americanspeeddemon

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@beast_mode999: @anthp2000: Lightning bending derives from when one separates the positive and negative energies in the body they then direct this energy to their fingertips and reconnect them creating lightning here's a quote fro Iroh-

"There is energy all around us. The energy is both yin and yang; positive energy and negative energy. Only a select few firebenders can separate these energies. This creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance and in a moment the positive and negative energy come crashing back together. You provide release and guidance, creating lightning."

Firebenders are the only benders who manipulate their on internal chi other benders use their chi to manipulate the environment which is why they can generate fire unlike the her benders. They can do other things with manipulating chi too like sense chi unbalances.

TL;DR: It's not actual lightning but external chi energy.

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anthp2000

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#4  Edited By anthp2000  Moderator

@americanspeeddemon: Fair point. Firebenders are indeed the only benders who actually "create" their element, so it makes sense. But if they really wanted to make lightningbending a sub element of water, they could have done it with different animation and style, so that's where my comment on the plot and characetrs fitting goes.

So creating lightning is pretty much a lot different than lightning. In the very fist episode, when Iroh was training Zuko, he told him about breathing and that they generate fire from inside. Not from the energy around like he said with lightning there.

I'm curious. What do you mean that they can sense chi unbalances?

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americanspeeddemon

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@anthp2000: in legend of Korra when Korra washes up on the beach after being attacked by the dark spirit she is taken to a fire priestess who uses her bending to detect spiritual imbalances inside of Korra. I don't know if we ever saw this any other time.

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anthp2000

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#6 anthp2000  Moderator

@americanspeeddemon: Oh, right. But I thought this lady was a healer or something.

She was a pretty interesting bender...

Yeah, we never saw it before. I'd like to know more about this kind of thing...

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gunmetalgrey

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#7  Edited By gunmetalgrey

The first question's pretty much been answered, as for the second one..

Most weather patterns are created by drastic temperature differentials causing massive movement and interactions of air and moisture.

As far as I know, no benders have been shown to to heat and cool their respective elements simultaneously, let alone at a large enough scale to demonstrate any sort of weather control.