I have a question for all you Dopers out there. If you had a choice which of the four ‘elements’ (earth, fire, wind, and water) would you want to control?
My vote is in for water. So versitile. And it gives you the ability to boil other’s blood if you get mad at them. So which one would you want?
What, no “heart”?
By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!..The power is yours!
I’d have to have choose fire. Someone annoys me, ffzzztttt-zap…pphhhwwwwssshhh…burnie…singe “Goodbye”.
Gooooo Planet!
Another vote for water… can be cold, hot or simply powerful.
I’d be happy to control Milla Jovovich for a while.
::chuckles at the captain planet references:: I’d almost forgotten that show.
I’d go for earth personally. Fire would be fun, but far too tempting to misuse. Too many people annoy me 
Air.
To be able to have the wind transport me, or whatever I choose, anywhere on earth. I could have the air form a bubble about me so I could travel underwater or unscathed through fire. With enough wind-force, I could divert projectiles or hold back enemies.
Used subtly enough, it could make what I do as a mild-mannered citizen seem like magic!
Ha! That’s the first thing I thought of when I read this thread title.
I think I’d choose wind. Lots of power to change things there.
Shoot, I was hoping we could take our pick from the periodic table. I was gonna choose praseodymium. Or dysprosium.
Maybe Oxygen would be a good one, or Air if you must, seems to me if you can control the air folk breathe you would have plenty of control
Earth.
It is heavy.
Definitely earth. All the rare elements I could sell, and if you try to torque me around, I could collapse your house into a blackhole…
I also thought I was going to get to pick from the periodic table. I would have picked molybdenum, because whoever controls the molybdenum controls the people. First you get the molybdenum, then you get the power, then you get the woman.
But if we are stuck with the Grecian elements, I guess I’m left with water. The other three seem to be taken already by some 70’s soul group.
If we’re picking from the periodic table, probably hydrogen.
If we’re picking from the Planeteers, I’d go for water, especially if there was an option for ice thrown in.
I second Bryan Ekers. Why can’t we control the fifth element? By which, I of course mean Boron.
Simply because it sounds like a contraction of “boring moron.”
Water. It’s not as dangerous to people and buildings as fire is, but you can do some temporary damage with it.
I seem to recall other theories in which there was a fifth element, either the quintessence (the life force) or the void (the opposite of the quintessence). Given my choice, I think I’d have to go with control over one of those. But it’d be a real tough choice–the quintessence would probably allow me to be near immortal, but the void would allow me to be a serious badass. There’s something to be said for either of those options.
Give me electricity and lightning any day.
Well, seeing as in the aforementioned “Captain Planet” the heroes, being heroes, couldn’t actually hurt anybody, and assuming the same rules would apply to me, I’d have to choose “Fire.” At least I’d get to blow things up.
And if I could choose an elemental force of my own? Gravity. There’d just be so much fun to be had.
Ranchoth