Boiling Rock
From Avatar Wiki, the Avatar: The Last Airbender database
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This article is about a location. For the episodes, see The Boiling Rock, Part 1 and The Boiling Rock, Part 2 For the battle, see Escape from the Boiling Rock.
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| Physical Information | |
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| Location |
Northern Fire Nation |
| Government | |
| Position |
Maximum Security Prison |
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| First Appearance | |
The Boiling Rock is a massive Fire Nation prison. Its name is derived from the fact that the prison is on an island in the middle of a boiling lake on a volcanic island. The Boiling Rock is where the most dangerous prisoners in the Fire Nation are held, domestic and foreign alike. Some examples of prisoners held here include robbers, traitors, and war prisoners.
The prison is run by the Warden, a cruel old man who takes great pride in the prison's reputation as an impenetrable fortress. The prison is guarded by an army of Firebenders.
The Boiling Rock is featured in the two-part episode, "The Boiling Rock".
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[edit] Description
The Boiling Rock is a maximum-security prison located within a boiling lake (hence, the name) in the middle of a seemingly lifeless island. It's also the most modern prison in the Fire Nation. Its walls are extremely thick and made of the most up-to-date indestructible metal. Among its highlights is the gondola system which is the only way on and off the prison island and the most isolation chambers called "coolers". Prisoners can not escape swimming in the lake (as they will be severely burned). Those who try to escape in any other way are thrown into the coolers.
The prison is far more advanced than the prison Iroh was held in at the Fire Nation Capital. It is equipped with hundreds of cells that can all be opened simultaneously from a control room located above the cell blocks. The prisoners are all kept behind bars during lockdown hours and let outside when it best suits the prison staff. Anyone who disobeys prison orders or misbehaves is thrown into specially-designed coolers, which are small one-man chambers designed to chill traitorous Firebenders into submission.
The prison is run by the Warden, a cruel old man who takes great pride in the prison's reputation as an impenetrable fortress. He always verbally or physically abuses his prisoners, and only goes easy on them if they do what he wishes. He and his army of guards often resort to cruel practices to punish the prisoners, such as the infamous coolers and even hanging them upside-down to create physical pain.
[edit] History
The Boiling Rock was created relatively late during the War, by Fire Lord Ozai, who spared no expense in the construction of this prison. There are currently hundreds of prisoners there. Of which more than half are convicted Firebenders. In all of its years of operation, nobody had ever escaped the prison.
After the failed Invasion of the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun, dozens of prisoners from the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom were imprisoned. However, only their leader, Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, was sent to the Boiling Rock due to his role as the leader. All of the others were imprisoned at the Capital City Prison. Hakoda's son Sokka who escaped the Fire Nation, was desperate to save his father. So he (and his new ally Prince Zuko) traveled to the Boiling Rock to save him. They took Zuko's war balloon but had to abandon it after it was wrecked in a failed landing. After penetrating the prison, Sokka and Zuko disguised themselves as guards and searched for Hakoda. They could not find Hakoda, but they did find Sokka's long-lost girlfriend: Suki of the Kyoshi Warriors. She too went to the prison alone as she was the leader. They finally reunited and the group planned an escape. They were joined by Chit Sang who was a prominent prisoner that was on bad terms with the Warden. He and two of his friends tried to escape with the group by converting one of the coolers into a boat so that they could cross the lake. However, Sokka, Suki, and Zuko stayed behind to find Hakoda as he might have been part of a new shipment of prisoners.
Chit Sang and his friends blew their cover and were promptly rearrested. Zuko posed as a prisoner while Sokka went to find his dad. Much to Sokka's happiness, Hakoda was at the prison, so he reunited with him and planned a new escape. Much to Zuko's shock, his girlfriend Mai was there, as the Warden was her uncle. She demands Zuko to tell her his decision to leave her, and Zuko explained without much success. Unfortunately, the Warden tortured Chit Sang into revealing that one of their guards helped him escape, endangering Sokka's life. Fortunately, at the roundup of the newbie guards, Chit Sang framed a random guard instead of Sokka, and asked to join in Sokka's second escape in return for protecting him.
Much to the shock of the Warden and the prison staff, Princess Azula and Ty Lee showed up, who immediately suspected Zuko and the Avatar's friends were the actual culprits. After Sokka freed the prisoners, they started a riot, which is where the group made their escape. Zuko also escaped from Mai, and he rejoined his group. The group captured the Warden so that they could use him as a bargaining chip for their escape. The group hijacked a gondola and fled to shore, only to be confronted by Ty Lee and Azula. The group managed to hold them off, but the guards were cutting the gondola lines, which would send the entire group plunging into the lake. Much to the shock of everyone there, Mai attacked the guards and freed the stalled gondola, allowing Zuko and his friends to flee. They then hijacked Azula's Airship and fled to the Western Air Temple. The Warden was left on shore.
Azula confronted Mai and demanded an explanation. Mai explained that she still loved Zuko, more than she feared Azula. Enraged, Azula tried to attack Mai but Ty Lee blocks her Chi energy and paralyzes her before she could even attack. The two girls were then arrested on Azula's orders, and imprisoned, though it's not made clear if at the Boiling Rock or in another prison.
However, right after The War ended with Ozai and Azula's defeat and the regain of Ba Sing Se by the Order of the White Lotus, Mai and Ty Lee were released.
[edit] Interrogation Room
Like every good Fire Nation prison system, the Boiling Rock has an interrogation room. Originally, The Warden wanted the interrogation room to be something special, something to really be feared. So The Warden decided to put his interrogation room in one of the "coolers." That, however, turned out to be a problem. For one, it was way too small, but the main reason it didn't work out was because the cooler was so cold it affected the interrogator as much as it did the prisoner being interrogated. So in the end, everyone decided that when it comes to interrogation rooms, plain metal beams, dim lighting, and a single chair was the way to go.
[edit] Coolers
These isolation chambers were installed to punish prisoners who dare to Firebend in the Boiling Rock. It's freezing in the cooler; an incredible insulation keeps the extremely cold air enclosed. When a prisoner is locked in there, they cannot feel a wisp of the warm outside air enter. The freezing cooler is the worst place for Firebenders: just a day inside and they can't Firebend for a week. When Zuko was in the cooler, he stayed warm by using his "breath of fire" technique, thus allowing him to Firebend once he got out. With Zuko's help, Sokka used a cooler to use as a makeshift boat to escape the prison. This plan failed because of the involvement and hastiness of Chit Sang, who tried to make the cooler move faster once in the water and burned himself, screaming in pain and alerting the guards.
[edit] Real-World Connections
- The name and design of this prison is almost certainly a reference to Alcatraz Island, a real-world island prison, which was nicknamed "The Rock". As with the Boiling Rock, Alcatraz boasts a history of no successful escapes, though three criminals did try to escape by swimming and where never found. It's ironic that the point of Alcatraz was that any prisoner who tried to swim away would freeze in the water, while on the Boiling Rock anyone who tried to swim away would be burned to death.
- It also bears some resemblance to Stalag Luft III as depicted in the 1963 film The Great Escape in that it's solitary confinement cells are called "Coolers" and that Sokka's method for escaping involved going in a blind spot between two guard towers.
- In idea of Chit Sang and his two friends trying to escape the prison in a cooler as a makeshift boat was also probably inspired by real histroy, when three criminal masterminds tried to escape Alcatraz.
