Mechanist

"earth"

- Never underestimate the power of stink!

The mechanist was an inventor and engineer from the Earth Kingdom, who became a refugee, resettling at the deserted Northern Air Temple during the Hundred Year War. Though living in poverty as a widower, leaving him to care for his son, Teo, he was blackmailed into conspiring with the Fire Nation to build ingenious inventions of artillery for them. Despite his wretched life, he had quite an eccentric persona. His inventions contributed significantly to the development of technology in the world.

History


After a flood destroyed his village, killing his wife and leaving his son Teo paraplegic, the mechanist led his people into the surrounding mountains in search of a new home. They came across the Air Nomads' long abandoned temple and promptly moved in. Inspired by the airbenders, the mechanist mass-produced modified versions of the airbenders' gliders, creating a whole new method of transportation for his people. He devised an ingenious hot air-based power source for the whole temple, completely refurbishing and remodeling it. Among other ingenious inventions of his, were time candles and a cut-safe knife sharpener. This "only took [him] three tries to get it right", explaining the three wooden fingers on his left hand. A natural gas explosion left him with patchy eyebrows.

Roughly a year after they settled, the Fire Nation blackmailed the mechanist to build new weapons, including steam-powered battle tanks and a war balloon, under the threat of invading the temple if he did not comply. When Aang found out about this, he broke the arrangement the mechanist had with Qin and the mechanist redeemed himself by aiding Aang and the others to repel the Fire Nation when they stormed the temple.

He was seen drawing up plans for the massive drill, eventually completed by Qin and used to pierce the Great Wall of Ba Sing Se. This proves that the Fire Nation soldiers were apparently able to steal the drill plans sometime during the attack, along with recovering the downed hot air balloon after their defeat.



The mechanist returned to assist in the invasion plan. Before coming ashore, he caused an explosion on one of the boats where he was working on his new invention, peanut sauce bombs, which Pipsqueak and The Duke seemed to enjoy as they commented that they were, "destructive as well as delicious". Due to the intellectual alliance of Sokka's plan and the mechanist's executions, the invasion force was able to use waterbending-powered submarines to sneak up unnoticed on the Fire Nation coastal guards. The mechanist did comment, however, that Sokka's original blueprints were "a bit difficult to decipher". The submarines had many functions such as transportation, and were equipped with torpedo tubes from which the waterbending passengers could fire the ice torpedoes. The mechanist also presented Aang with a new glider with a built in snack compartment.

During the invasion, he tagged along with the invasion force where he operated a supply truck filled to the rim with stone for the earthbender invaders. He narrowly escaped when a missile, shot from one of the battlements, blew up this truck. He, along with the rest of the invasion force, later found out that his hot air balloons had been manufactured en mass and even upgraded to larger airships by the Fire Nation. The mechanist was last seen when he and the rest of the invasion force prepared to let themselves be captured so that the younger ones escape on Appa. He was sent to a prison by the end of the invasion.

After the Hundred Year War ended, the mechanist was freed and reunited with his son, Teo. The two were last seen in the Fire Nation Capital, watching the coronation of Zuko as the new Fire Lord.

Inventions

 * Hot air balloon - Experimental weapon developed for the Fire Nation.
 * Waterbending-powered submarines - Naval vehicles used in the Invasion of the Fire Nation.
 * Earthbending-powered tank - Vehicles owned and operated by the Earth Kingdom military. Used during the Day of Black Sun.
 * Earth Kingdom supply truck - Motorized, metallic vehicles. They were supposedly designed by Sokka in preparation for the invasion. They were used as a means of cargo transportation for earthbending ammo.
 * Fire Nation drill - Drill that the Fire Nation would later use to breach the walls of Ba Sing Se.
 * Ice torpedo - Weapon designed for use in the Invasion of the Fire Nation.
 * Timing device - Used to keep track of time during an eclipse.
 * Time candles - Candles used to tell the time.
 * Gliders - Including Aang's new glider to replace his broken one and a chair glider for the mechanist's son Teo.
 * Peanut sauce bombs - Failed experimental explosive devices.
 * Stink bombs - Released from the gliders. Emits a foul-smelling substance upon detonation.
 * Slime bombs - Thrown from the hot air balloons and dropped from the chair gliders. Exudes large amounts of sticky, slippery, green substance.
 * Fire bombs - Released from the gliders. Explodes on impact.
 * Smoke bombs - Released from the gliders. Obscures a portion of the battlefield and causes coughing.
 * Eclipse glasses - Wooden glasses with tiny slits for eyes, allowing you to stare into an eclipse.
 * Finger-safe knife sharpener - Never seen. This invention took three tries to get right, resulting in the loss of three fingers.
 * Prosthetic wooden fingers- Three removable wooden fingers made to replace the ones the mechanist lost while making his finger-safe knife sharpener.
 * Tundra tank - Used by the Fire Nation as a strong assault force. They are equipped with a counterbalancing system that allows the tanks to remain face up after being flipped.

Relatives

 * Teo (son)

Trivia

 * The mechanist and Combustion Man were the only known Avatar characters to have prosthesis.
 * The mechanist is very similar to Carl Benz both inventors of the automobile that lost the credit to somebody more well known, Henry Ford for Carl and Hiroshi Sato for the mechanist.