Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-24074103-20140204152149/@comment-679780-20140310030608

Well in the DragonBall series, it depicts that Qi is essentially life energy but the warriors of DragonBall series are able to manifest and weaponise the energy.

I believe in Sonic's world life energy and chaos energy are simular but different and seperate. Life Energy is pretty much used for simply living. Dr. Eggman can make badniks that run on life energy but these machines have limited IQ and capabilities and for bigger extractions would need to build a huge machine for it. (The Extractor perhaps burns more power than life energy it extracts. It is perhaps also thermopowered given it's location).

Tikals says the Chaos Emeralds can turn thought into power, so Chaos Energy can be used for more DragonBall like attacks since it's an energy that can be manipulated by the mind. However given chaos energy is an unbridled, unpredictable power, only those with strong will can make shape and use of Chaos Energy. I suppose Chaos Energy can be in a sense "juiced-up" life energy as this could be the reason why Shadow is regarded as an immortal. Either that or Gerald Robotnik has artificially made him immortal through science.