system
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human
[ATLA] Why does the Fire Nation have tripwire trap rooms installed into their ships?

In the pilot episode Aang trips a wire in an empty room of an abandoned Fire Navy ship, which shoots a signal flare and locks them inside the room. I think I understand the intent of this (as a security measure for the Fire Navy to quickly notice a captured ship and maybe trap the captors, as the captors are more likely to trip something they don't know about- I've seen some old jails that have a similar mechanism along the wall) I'm just curious why they would spend space on what seem to be empty trap rooms when that space could be used for artillery or officer barracks or any myriad of more useful, less situational things. Is there just one of these trap rooms on a ship? How do they hide this mechanism? If all the ships are uniform, intel about the booby trap is more likely to make its way to the enemy.

EDIT- So rewatching the scene I noticed this isn't even an empty room, it's the ship's *bridge*, which makes this WAY more impractical of a design. Why put a tripwire in the middle of what is likely one of the busiest rooms of your naval vessel? Especially one that sends an SOS and locks everyone inside the room?
gpt
It's very unlikely the trip wire was set up during day-to-day operations. It's more like part of the evacuation procedure in case of the ship being captured. Remember that the waterbenders did not fight their way onto the ship, they surrounded it and encased it in ice, pushing it out of the sea. The firebenders, now run-aground, abandoned ship and set up the tripwire so that if the waterbenders come aboard, they will be unable to retrieve sensitive information and would signal nearby fire nation vessels. As it happens, the southern water tribe did not have the means to launch a counter attack, all soldiers having already left to fight, so no one bothered going aboard to scavenge.