Boiling Rock


 * 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.

The Boiling Rock was an extremely secure Fire Nation prison well-known for its history of unsuccessful escapes. The prison was situated on a volcanic island in the middle of a boiling lake, hence its name. The most dangerous criminals, both domestic and foreign alike, were sent here; these prisoners included thieves, traitors, and prisoners of war.

The prison was run by a cruel warden who took great pride in the prison's reputation as an impenetrable fortress. To ensure its continuing success, the Boiling Rock was guarded by an army of firebenders. The only way on and off the volcanic island was by traveling over the boiling water on the gondolas.

History
The Boiling Rock was created relatively late during the War by Fire Lord Ozai, who spared no expense in the construction of the prison. There were hundreds of prisoners there, of which more than half were convicted firebenders. In all of its years of operation, nobody had ever escaped the prison. Fire Lord Ozai created the prison especially for imprisoning war prisoners from other nations.

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 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 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. 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 demanded Zuko 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 new guards, 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 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 the 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 into the lake. Mai elected to "save the jerk who dumped me," and attacked the guards, allowing the stalled gondola to reach the outer station so Zuko and his friends could flee. They then hijacked Azula's airship and flew 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 blocked her chi energy and paralyzed her before she could even attack. The two girls were then arrested on Azula's orders, and imprisoned.

However, after the 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 namesake boiling lake in the middle of a seemingly lifeless island; the steam that rises from its very center and accumulates with the sky above it makes it impossible for airborne crafts operating with hot steam to maneuver above the prison, since the heat from both sides will simply cause the craft to crash. 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 isolation chambers called "coolers". Prisoners cannot escape swimming in the lake, as they would 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 lock-down 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 running the prison is 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.

Interrogation room
Like every good 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, it was decided that when it comes to interrogation rooms, plain metal beams, dim lighting, and a single chair was the way to go.

Coolers


These isolation chambers were installed to punish prisoners who dared to firebend in the Boiling Rock. It was freezing in the cooler; incredible insulation kept the extremely cold air enclosed. When a prisoner was locked in there, they were not able to feel even a wisp of the warm air outside. The freezing cooler was the worst place for firebenders; after just a day inside, they were unable to firebend for a 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. 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.

Real-world connections

 * The name and design of the 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, although three criminals did try to escape by swimming and were 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.
 * The Alcatraz escapees Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin's idea was to make a raft from raincoats and make their way to Angel Island or more likely to drift with the current to the Marin Headlands. This resembles Sokka's original plan of taking one of the coolers and drifting with the current to the other side of the lake.

Notable inmates

 * Chit Sang (escaped)
 * Hakoda (escaped)
 * Suki (escaped)
 * Zuko (escaped)
 * Mai (released)
 * Ty Lee (released)
 * Chit Sang's friend (unknown)
 * Chit Sang's girlfriend (unknown)
 * Tough criminal (unknown)