Boiling Rock

:This article is about the location. For other similar uses, see Boiling Rock (disambiguation). For other locations used for imprisonment, see Prisons (disambiguation).
The Boiling Rock is a maximum security Fire Nation prison known for its history of unsuccessful escape attempts. The prison is situated on a volcanic island in the middle of a boiling lake, hence its name. The most dangerous criminals, both domestic and foreign alike, are sent here; these prisoners included thieves, traitors, and prisoners of war.
The prison was once run by a cruel warden who took great pride in the prison's reputation as an inescapable fortress; to maintain this reputation, the Boiling Rock was guarded by an army of firebenders, and the only way on and off the volcanic island was by traveling over the boiling water on one of the two gondolas.
== History ==
The Boiling Rock was created relatively late in the Hundred Year War by Fire Lord Ozai, who spared no expense in the construction of the prison. There were hundreds of prisoners there, of whom more than half were convicted firebenders. In all of its years of operation, nobody had ever escaped the prison.
=== Suki's imprisonment ===
After being captured by Azula, Suki was sent to the Boiling Rock, as the princess took enjoyment in imagining the latter breaking in the prison's brutal isolation. Once there, Suki quickly befriended another prisoner, Biyu, and began to make plans for a breakout by organizing a spirit of community in the prison population. Over two weeks, the pair was joined by Qing, Han, and many other prisoners, and cultivated dumpling weed plants in a hidden garden accessed through a secret passage via the laundry room. Although the warden visited the laundry room for a surprise inspection, the prisoners remained loyal to Suki and Biyu, and did not betray them or the garden.
The prisoners began to grow more willful thanks to the increased food rations, although Qing was approached by a guard during meal times after Suki slipped him one of the legumes. The other prisoners rallied around Qing, crowded around the guards, and threw their food at them before they could reach his bowl. A fight broke out between the guards and prisoners before backup could arrive, and bent a warning shot of fire toward the prisoners. They surrendered before being handcuffed and sent to solitary confinement.
Growing worried after the fight in the cafeteria, Biyu betrayed Suki and the others by telling the warden about the garden. Biyu was rewarded with an elevated status and special privileges, such as a higher quality uniform, better food, and a special cell. The warden brought Suki to his office, confronting her with the legumes. She denied any knowledge of the plants, but he told her that someone had betrayed her, and chided her for thinking that she could organize the prisoners to escape with her plan. He ordered her to be sent to solitary confinement for two weeks. After being released back into the general population, Suki confronted Biyu for her treachery, only to be told that she valued her own comfort over putting herself at risk for the entire community. Suki returned to her cell in despair, before she received a vision of Avatar Kyoshi telling her that her friends loved her and had not abandoned her.
=== Escape ===
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 captured and imprisoned. However, only their leader, Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, was sent to the Boiling Rock due to his role as the leader of the invasion. All of the others were imprisoned at the Capital City Prison. Hakoda's son, Sokka, who had escaped the Fire Nation, was desperate to save his father. 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, leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. After they had reunited for the first time since the Serpent's Pass, they and Zuko planned an escape. They were joined by Chit Sang, a prominent prisoner who was on bad terms with the warden and had overheard their escape plot. He and two of his friends tried to escape with the group by converting one of the coolers into a boat, which would allow them to 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 demanded that Zuko tell her the reason behind his decision to leave her, and Zuko explained without much success. The warden later tortured Chit Sang into revealing that one of their guards helped him escape, endangering Sokka's life. However, Chit Sang framed the guard that had bullied him before 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, immediately suspecting that Zuko and the Avatar's friends were the actual culprits. After Sokka freed the prisoners, they started a riot, and the group made their escape. Zuko also managed to escape from Mai and rejoin his group. The group captured the warden in order to use him as a bargaining chip for their escape, before hijacking a gondola and attempting to flee to shore, only to be confronted by Ty Lee and Azula. The group managed to hold them off, but at the warden's insistence, the guards were cutting the gondola lines, which would send the entire group plunging to their death into the lake. While Azula was confident she had foiled the escape, Mai elected to "save the jerk who dumped [her]" and attacked the guards, allowing the stalled gondola to reach the outer station so Zuko and his friends could flee. They left the warden in the gondola and proceeded to hijack Azula's airship, with which they flew to the Western Air Temple.
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 blocked her chi energy and paralyzed her before she could even attack. The two girls were arrested on Azula's orders and imprisoned, though Ty Lee was transferred to a prison where the other Kyoshi Warriors were serving their sentence.
However, after the Hundred Year War ended with the defeats of Azula and Ozai, as well as the liberation of Ba Sing Se by the Order of the White Lotus, Mai and Ty Lee were released and allowed to return home.
== Description ==
The Boiling Rock is a maximum-security prison located within a boiling lake in the middle of a seemingly lifeless island. The steam that rises from the lake and accumulates within the sky above it makes it impossible for airborne crafts operating with hot air to maneuver above the prison because the heat eliminates the temperature differential, making it impossible to fly. The prison was constructed during the later months of the War, making it a modern, state of the art facility. Its walls are extremely thick and made of the most up-to-date indestructible metal. Among its features are the gondola system which is the only way on and off the prison island and the isolation chambers called "coolers". Prisoners cannot escape by swimming in the lake, as they would be severely burned. Those who try to escape in any other way, or firebend, are thrown into one of the coolers if they are a firebender, or placed in solitary confinement if they are nonbenders.
The prison is far more advanced than the Capital City Prison. 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, small one-man chambers designed to chill traitorous firebenders into submission.
The warden in charge of the prison was a cruel man who took great pride in the prison's reputation as an impenetrable fortress. He often verbally or physically abused his prisoners and only went easy on them if they did what he demanded. He and his army of guards often resorted to cruel practices to punish the prisoners, such as locking them in coolers and hanging them upside-down to create physical pain.
=== Cafeteria ===
The cafeteria is a large communal area where prisoners can take meals. The food at the prison is known for being both disgusting and meager, which keeps morale low in the prison, as well as intentionally keeping the prisoners weak as a form of submission. The room is located close to backup guards in case the prisoners ever try to overwhelm the guards during meal times.
=== Laundry room ===
The laundry room is where prisoners wash their own uniforms, as well as those of the guards when on work duty. The laundry room once had a secret passage to a sunlit patch of courtyard where Suki and her allies cultivated a garden of dumpling weed plants, but this was destroyed after Biyu betrayed the other prisoners.
=== Interrogation room ===
The Boiling Rock, in the vein of most other top-notch Fire Nation prison complexes, had an interrogation room that the warden wanted the prisoners to fear. To accomplish this, the warden established the first interrogation room in a cooler. That, however, turned out to be a problem, as the room proved to be too small and the extreme cold had a negative effect on the interrogator. Following this, a new interrogation room was devised, which included a dimly lit metal room with metal bars and a chair to restrain the person being interrogated.
=== Coolers ===
These isolation chambers were installed to punish firebender prisoners who dared to use their bending or step out of line in the Boiling Rock. The coolers were kept at freezing temperatures, with insulation to seal in the cool air. When a prisoner was locked in there, they were not able to feel even a wisp of the warm air outside. Within the cooler, firebending was impossible; after just a day inside, it rendered a person unable to bend for a full week. When Zuko was in the cooler, he stayed warm using his "breath of fire" technique, thus allowing him to firebend once he got out. The coolers were integral to Sokka's plans as they were they were perfectly insulated: they would resist the overwhelming heat of the volcano and boiling lake and float away from the prison of its own accord. With Zuko's help, Sokka used a cooler 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.
=== Solitary confinement ===
Nonbender prisoners are sent to solitary confinement instead of the cooler if they do not follow the rules of the prison. Solitary cells are extremely cramped, and prisoners are kept sleep deprived. There is no access to any other prisoners or guards, and it is possible to be kept in solitary for weeks for offenses such as attacking guards or supplying contraband.
=== Warden's office ===
The warden's office is a spacious room with metal walls and ceiling. A gold and red desk and chair stand next to a wall, in front of a big portrait of the Fire Lord. During the late stages of the Hundred Year War, the warden kept a portrait of Fire Lord Ozai.
== Notable inmates ==
* Biyu
* Chit Sang (escaped)
* Chit Sang's friend
* Chit Sang's girlfriend
* Hakoda (escaped)
* Han
* Mai (released)
* Qing
* Suki (escaped)
* Tough criminal
* Ty Lee (transferred; later released)
* Zuko (escaped)
== Notable personnel ==
* Warden (administrator)
* Bully guard
* Female prison guard
* Gondola guards
* Lowly guard
* Sokka (incognito)
* Zuko (incognito)
== Trivia ==
* The name and design of the prison is very similar 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, with the surrounding freezing water providing an impediment much like the boiling lake around the Boiling Rock.
** An attempt by three inmates to escape Alcatraz using a raft that would drift with the current resembles Sokka's original plan to take one of the coolers and drift with the current to the other side of the lake.
* It also bears some resemblance to Stalag Luft III as depicted in the 1963 film The Great Escape, with solitary confinement cells known as "Coolers" and a similar escape attempt using the blind spot between two guard towers, and Stalag 13 from the 1960s television series Hogan's Heroes, which has a similar inescapable reputation and a confinement cell also referred to as "The Cooler".
== References ==
== See also ==
* Escape from the Boiling Rock
de:Der heiße Stein
pl:Wrząca Skała
es:Roca Hirviente
fi:Kiehuva kivi
fr:Rocher Bouillant
he:הסלע הרותח
nl:De Kokende Rots
ru:Кипящая скала
Category:A to Z
Category:Establishments
Category:Fire Nation
Category:Islands
Category:Locations
Category:Prisons