Summoning Captain Planet

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About

"Summoning Captain Planet" is a chain commenting game based on a recurring trope from the 1990s animated TV series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, in which the names of four classical elements--Earth, Fire, Wind and Water--and the fifth element Heart must be invoked by the five corresponding Planeteers in order to summon the superhero protagonist Captain Planet. Similar to the usage of FIRST comments, the chain usually begins with the first poster exclaiming "EARTH," followed by the other four and ends with the sixth poster declaring "by your power combined, I am Captain Planet!"

Poster A: EARTH!
Poster B: FIRE!
Poster C: WIND!
Poster D: WATER!
Poster E: HEART!
Poster F: By your powers combined..I AM CAPTAIN PLANET!

Origin

Captain Planet and the Planeteers^[1] is an animated environmentalist television program that aired in the United States from September 1990 until December 1992. In the series, each of five Planeteers are given a ring which allows them to temporarily control one of the four classical elements--Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water--as well as the fifth element of Heart. When chanted out loud in the proper order and followed by the group's cheer "GO PLANET!", Captain Planet would appear from flashes of lightnings and sounds of thunders.

Although its history of online usage remains somewhat murky, numerous online reference sites have attributed the gaming forum GameFAQs' LUE (Life, Universe and Everything) board^[3]^[4] as the site of origin, with its earliest archived instance found in an IRC chat log submitted to Lue Games forum on March 18th, 2005.

theyoungdragon57 (8:47:33 PM): what are the elements of the game?
theyoungdragon57 (8:47:39 PM): Fire, water, wind ground…
HalfLifeCrowBar (8:47:54 PM): EARTH FIRE WIND WATER HEART!
neokid0298 (8:48:12 PM): Go Planet?

Spread

Since its emergence through GameFAQs LUE board in the mid-2000s, the commenting meme has spread across many other gaming-related communities, including SEGA Forum^[7], LHR Gaming Forum^[9] and GameSpot Forum^[12], internet humor hubsites like 4chan^[19], Something Awful^[20] and FARK^[21], as well as on the BodyBuilding Forum misc board.^[10]^[11]

Especially on 4chan, where chain posting is considered a popular pastime, the summoning of Captain Planet proved to be increasingly difficult as others attempted to disrupt the chain by posting C-C-C-Combo Breaker amidst the buildup:

Poster A: Earth!
Poster B: FIRE!
Poster C: WIND!
Poster D: C-C-C-C-COMBO BRRRREAKER!!!!

The Urban Dictionary^[2] definition of "EARTH FIRE WIND WATER HEART" was submitted by user Captain Planet on January 28th, 2005. Two Facebook pages to the popular catchphrase were created in January and May 2010, both named after the memorable chant from Captain Planet and The Planeteers.