Static electricity ionizes air molecules in clouds/upper atmosphere

Tiny pockets, or strings, or tethers of the ionized air floats down to the earth invisibly in all kinds of random lighter than air floating patterns, and when it eventually touches the ground it creates a temporary circuit and the ionized static energy in the clouds transfers to the ground and you can see the weird random pattern the ionized air molecules drifted to the ground in, in the shape of the lighting bolt. That’s why lighting bolts all look different and completely random weird shapes.

Think if you dropped a feather or leaf from high up and traced its pattern downward. It would be random and flowy and chaotic every time. Same with the ionized air that creates lightning, flowing to the ground.

Lots of thin invisible ionized air tendrils pretty much hanging from clouds and the upper atmosphere, and when one of them manages to touch the ground a transfer of energy can occur along that least resistant ionized trail