system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Avatar: The Last Airbender] Why are Firebenders the only benders to use chi instead of the actual element in the area. What makes it so special and different from the other techniques?
gpt
Fire is unique among the elements in that it is itself a form of energy. The other bending arts manipulate the energy within their elements. Firebenders manipulate *their own* energy. In many ways, it is the most basic and pure of the four bending arts. As the Lion Turtle said, "In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves". It's not a coincidence that the first Avatar was a firebender. Firebending is forcefully expelling the chi within a bender as pure energy. This is why firebenders can also generate lightning. It is yet another, far more advanced and dangerous form of energy.