In honor of season 5 I present:
The Samadhi Fire: Chemistry Analysis
The Samadhi Fire has dark red flames, which are obviously only supposed to show us how incredibly hot and inextinguishable they are, but as a chemistry nerd I feel obliged to look more into it.
The Basics
In nature, Red flames are most commonly produced by burning of Lithium (Li). Lithium is an Alkali metal, a group of elements known for burning when touching Oxygen or hydrogen - meaning spontaneous and immediate burns when touching air. And, well, who kept on burning until they literally split the flames? That's right, our boy Red Son.
In The First Ring Princess Iron Fan says that Red Son was a "promising addition to the Demon Bull Family. Too promising". No one predicted the Samadhi Fire, it was spontaneous. like the burning of Lithium. In JTTW they needed an entire fucking ocean to put it out, a terrible idea when we're talking about Alkali metals (that also burn in reaction to water), but. fine. okay. it's an Alkali metal that burns in red, so it's lithium.
The Splitting Ritual
During the ritual, Tripitaka used magic to hold the fire while they separate the fire into three - an act that would obviously be impossible according to science, but we'll let it slide. So assuming this can separate the fire: what would it be separated to? Lithium is an element, you can't just split it. That would cause an atomic explosion. So what is it?
The answer is that it's not pure Lithium - that kind of substance is extremely unstable. the substance burning in the Samadhi fire is a molecule called Lithium Chloride (LiCl), and the ritual was a simple chemical reaction that turned the Lithium Chloride, with a little bit of Copper, to Lithium and Copper Chloride, with a reaction i will explain in the next part.
The Rings And Mei's Ritual
In her vision, Mei sees three rings, each burning in a different color. in the original JTTW lore the fire is made out of all the elements combined, so that's how i'm going to refer to it. But, like, also scientifically correct.
We have the orange fire, created with Calcium Chloride and representing Fire, mainly with its color.
next is Blue, created either with Alcohol or Copper Chloride and representing water with the molecule shape and type (alcohol is a type of a molecule build, and although water fits this category it is an exception and is NOT considered an alcoholic molecule).
and lastly there's the green fire, which is created with Copper Sulfate and represents earth, because Copper in one of the most common Precious Metals found inside the earth.
The original ritual starts with one Copper chloride ring, one Copper Sulfate ring, one Calcium Sulfate ring, and a big ass Lithium Chloride fire.
Then we have a chemical reaction when Tripitaka uses his magic, and it turns into one Copper Sulfate ring, one Copper Chloride ring, one Calcium Chloride ring and a harmless little Lithium Sulfate that hardly ever set fire.
Mei's ritual is kinda just the opposite, but with a big twist: when Lithium Chloride is created it releases a heat wave much hotter than its regular burning, creating white sparks. In the beginning of the ritual we can literally see a huge flash of light before the fire is created.
Ao Lie And The fourth Ring
There wasn't supposed to be a fourth ring. Sun Wukong said it clearly. He lost control and Ao Lie had to take the hit so Tripitaka doesn't die, turning himself to the fourth ring. Now, is this chemically possible? Of course not! So what is going on here?
Well, what if Ao Lie used the copper inside his bones and muscles to trap the fire inside a Copper Sulfate "ring", like the green one? He used the chemical reaction of the fire with his body (and probably a lot of magic, too) to make a ring inside of himself, trapping the last bit of fire. That would also explain how Mei has the fourth ring - it's like a defective gene, it's inside her bones. That could be the reason for her dragon form's "fire breathing" even before the ritual happened, she literally has fire in her bones.
Mei's Control Of The Fire
When Mei just gained control over the fire, the flames were red, like with Red Son before. She tried to use the fire like him, with lithium Chloride as her base. But she was afraid of the fire and didn't understand what's happening, so the fire was reckless and couldn't be tamed. It was affected by her feelings, and she simply couldn't control five different parts of the fire at the same time.
"Don't use the fire, Mei. BE the fire". It was only after Red Son told her this that she managed to really bend the fire to her will - because she used the copper inside of her to catch the fire and make it part of her, truly. She discharged the other rings and even the original burning Lithium and used the fire on her own terms, with Copper Sulfate as the base.
Minor spoilers for season 5!
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When the Dragon fruit Duo try to seal the Fire Creature Mei loses control, which shouldn't have happened according to this theory. If the fire is inside her bones, she shouldn't lose her ability to control it.
But look at what Red Son tells her (Translation by monkiemacaque on Youtube!): "You evolved with the fire! You didn't completely lose your connection, and never once gave in to its will! You are its master!"
Mei never lost her ability to control the fire, it was still there. The only problem was that it was inaccessible for her - it's like a reflex, it's an irrational response and she can't use it on command. Mei had to learn how to force the fire to obey her will, how to turn her reflexes to rational actions. Like how Red Son used to punch himself to activate the fire.
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I hope this was clear and easy to understand, I can try and explain more if not.
I don't think there's much to add, but let me know if i forgot anything!
Only thing I think is worth mentioning is that in some shots the flames are black, which is also impossible because. you can't make black (AKA lack of light) fire (AKA light source).
Also have these parallel screenshots I didn't know what to do with.
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Any Helia and Codatorta hcs? And, with other teachers as well like Griffin and Faragonda!
OF COURSE <333
Like I said before, Codatorta is basically Helia's found family dad. They're not actually related but Codatorta has been taking care of and training Helia since he was a little kid!
Codatorta is really proud of Helia but he doesn't show it often. He doesn't want the school to be accused of nepotism and he doesn't want Helia to be bullied/ostracized for special treatment, so Coda often ends up being a lot more strict and even a bit cold to Helia in public. Obviously, Helia does understand this, but it did still sting the first time it happened.
Codatorta was the first person that taught Helia self defense! When Helia was a kid, he really liked watching the specialists but he wasn't allowed to actually join in or learn anything himself. And at first, Codatorta was very strict about this because he didn't want little Helia to accidentally hurt himself or someone else yknow? Buuut right around the second time he got kidnapped by Saladin's enemies, Coda figured he'd need to know Something so he doesn't immediately die.
Queue the first time Helia actually manages to escape capture and Coda loses his fucking mind cause the kid isn't in his little cell oh god where did he go IS HE DEAD no he's in the vents
Speaking of giving Coda a heart attack! The first time he caught Helia sneaking out? Dear lord you'd think he fucking killed someone; he was grounded for so long !! (Codatorta was Very Mad but also Somewhat Proud that he managed to do it for so long without getting caught. Don't tell Helia that though..)
Saladin assumed that little Helia would feel more comfortable around Faragonda rather than Griffin but it was actually the opposite! He really liked hanging out in Griffin's office and overall preferred the (usually) chiller vibe at Cloud Tower. Griffin would always act annoyed by him but she did start leaving more beginner friendly history and magic books on her bookcases 🤭
The three principals actually had a bet on which kind of magic Helia would end up using. Saladin was convinced that he would follow in his footsteps and become a wizard, Griffin saw promise in his use of dark magic, and Faragonda knew that he already liked fairy magic. Imagine their surprise when he just neglected magic altogether! Except for his little origami cranes of course! Faragonda was actually the one who taught him that and Griffin helped him utilize it for missions (ie tracking magic and whatnot)
I don't think Helia would ever consciously or accidentally call Codatorta "dad", but I do think it happened once when he was badly injured and almost unconscious. Helia didn't remember it though so Codatorta never brought it up.
THIS is the codatorta and helia dynamic
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