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Years later when “Sokka’s science” and the Mechanist’s engineering discoveries and the Earth Kingdom’s unearthed scrolls copied from Wan Shi Tong’s library are released and taught in Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe schools and literacy was universal, as they had been in the Fire Nation for the last 200 years, would the world realize that it was the Fire Nation’s intuitive understanding of fire and its transformative nature on the world which allowed them such strides in conquest; not just that they carried their elements themselves. The Fire Nation valued their women and non-benders as equals because they knew that anyone could be taught to create, feed and manipulate fire into a distinct purpose. With it they could turn water into steam power, earth into steel and air into both fuel and flight.
While it would be some time before someone could reliably measure the wavelengths and heat of fire by degrees the Sun Warriors had observed the dragons and learned both the art and science of combustion. Art in adding different chemicals and minerals to an existing flame to create different colors; science in changing the fuel and completeness of combustion. They observed that flames in nature were predictable. One could breakdown the fire tetrahedron and shape a flame for a variety of entertainments and purposes. Dragon fire and by extension human fire bending was a different story that still played by the same rules.
Willpower provided the heat element for combustion in both dragon fire and firebending. In nature friction often raised the heat of an item to a flammable point and allowed the other factors to contribute to combustion. In bending, the friction between your desires, convictions and drive provided that heat element to invite a flame in the midst of the other combustion components.
Oxygen was vital for a flame. If there was no oxygen, such as underwater then the combustion would not complete and only heat would be emitted. In firebenders with great control one could manipulate their abilities to be able to emit heat but not flame through feeding oxygen internally to feed the flames of cellular metabolism rather than external ignition. “Fire comes from the breath”
In traditional bending the fuel of the fire was considered to be one’s chi. While normally fueled by food, health and exercise of both body and mind this could be hijacked by extremes of emotion or hormonal changes. It would later be found that adrenaline and cortisol had a significant influence on the color, production, size and endurance of one’s flames. Later masters would manipulate these factors to test human bending extremes and diagnosticians would use these in treating medical cases in bending individuals to find disorders in body and mind.
In Zuko’s day the Fire Sages relied on information from the Sun Warriors, past Avatars, the scholar-sages and their rapidly developing science to create a manuscript of their knowledge relating to the colors of flames as well as lesser-known techniques such as lightning bending, heat transfer and heat generation. This was what they taught in the scholarly circles of the meanings of the colors of natural and bending fire.
Of this Iroh knew, but had not yet disclosed to the White Lotus.
Coolest flame to Hottest flames:
Dark red – glow of embers from friction, not yet sparks Dull to bright red Orange Bright Yellow White Blue
The Fire Sages had determined from Sun Warrior writings that color of a bender’s flames could be used to read their emotional state when creating the fire, much like an aura. This is what they determined from their observations and communications from the dragons.
• Dark red fire (maroon) : uncertain, precursor to embers (drive)
• Dull red: smoldering; embers – a person in deep consideration but without the emotional catalyst
• Bright red: restrained with emotional engagement – can be positive or negative
• Orange: worried; reacting to safety threats; feeling overwhelmed or pushing oneself – can be positive or negative
• Yellow: loosing restraint over emotions; acting impulsively with strong emotions – can be positive or negative
o **red/orange/yellow shades were all considered normal flame colors and emotional/hormonal responses in human benders and indicated a healthily functioning system in body and mind.
• Green/purple/pink: dragons were known to use these flame colors in multicolor bursts. This was caused by a specific emotional response or hormone surge and was often deliberate. In a multicolor burst the dragon opened themselves to feeling the full spectrum of their emotions without fear or shame. These colors would later be found to be triggered by neurotransmitters in the reward pathway)
• White: panic or righteous anger; dragons defending young or hoard (which could include preferred humans); setting aside emotions and restraint for convictions/will; often a short burst as it requires a massive adrenaline surge and uses vast quantities of chi as this is often a “reptilian brain” response.
• Blue: indicative of complete combustion in nature, the blue flame represented a psychotic break, severe trauma and being stuck in the crisis response stage due to long-term cortisol production and adrenal fatigue partnered with a survival mindset: amygdala hijacking the limbic system and cerebral cortex in an active bid for survival.
Iroh knew, when he saw Zuko wield the blue flame, just how he had suffered under Fong. In a way that years under his Father’s disappointment, losing his mother, fearing and envying his sister, the Agni Kai, and hopeless years at sea could not do. Iroh had often feared the day Zuko reached a breaking point fearing that his sense of honor would cause him to take his own life. Iroh never imagined that Zuko would become so desperate to survive to sacrifice himself completely to the rages and ravages of the Blue Fire. He would weep and petition the spirits for the return of Zuko’s soul.
Mental institutions, if allowed to evaluate the royal siblings, would note that after losing her mother and brother at the machinations of her father, being abandoned by her uncle and left to the cutthroat court of the Fire Nation and having to uphold the dual roles of prodigy and Crown-Princess, it is no surprise that Azula develops a blue flame. And after Zuko’s experience with Fong a psychotic break was warranted but that it was his decision to protect Zi Se by killing Fong that pushed him into the blue fire.
Fire Nation psychologists would coin the term “Blue fire triangle” as the storm of circumstances that would push the mind to consume the body and chi reserves for the production of the blue flame: Strong amygdala trigger + rational brain deciding on a plan for survival + hindbrain trigger (protect me, protect something else deemed essential – loved one, shelter, provisions, one’s life, etc.)
Fire was life, but blue fire was the struggle for life encapsulated: to risk even your spirit and soul for your body to survive just another day.