Book 1, Chapter 5: The King of Omashu

***Disclaimer: I might be slightly kooky for this review. Oddly fitting, don't you think?

Welcome to the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu! Frankly, there isn't too much to see or discuss here, so sorry if we have to leaf early...

While mostly simply charming and humorous, The King of Omashu is notable for a few key things. 

First of all: 

MY CABBAGES!!!!!!!

Witness the birthplace of one of the best memes in the Avatar universe! The creators of the show received such positive reactions from the cabbage merchant that they decided to make him a running gag throughout the show. How hilarious is that?

Secondly:

The name's Bonzu!  Pipinpadaloxicopolis... THE THIRD!!!

...You're goddamn right 😉

 

Gosh! How can we forget the lovely and incomparable June Pipinpadaloxicopolis?  Foreshadowing much??

Fourthly, this vertical pan of the entire city is LIT, fam.

Man oh man, I love HD screenshots ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

MY CABBAGES!!!!

The animation this episode is still silly, but not to as great of an extent as in The Warriors of Kyoshi.  

Here we see King Bumi after throwing them a feast (hehe). His resemblance to the little kid Bumi in Aang's flashback is very uncanny, and I think most adults watching this would piece it together quickly. This brings up one of my main complaints for the first few episodes of ATLA: its childishness as a result of in-your-face themes and conflicts. I know, I know, I just stated last episode about how I respected the child-like presentation because it mirrored our main characters. On one hand, yes, that's true. But on the other, these first few episodes may be too heavy-handed in its themes. For nearly all of ATLA, I adore it for respecting its audience and treating them like adults, even if it is indeed a children's show. KIDS AREN'T DUMB, and the creators knew that and ran with it. Which is why to this day, ATLA is a show that can engage and challenge adults and children alike.

The Last Airbender transcended everything I thought a children's cartoon could be, to the point where I don't even feel comfortable calling it that! I'm only saying this for clarity and accuracy: this episode (and a select few surrounding it) fit squarely within the boundaries of what I'd normally consider a "children's show." There's nothing wrong with that, it just means that the themes and conflicts aren't too deep or emotionally tied. Now, have I just written two paragraphs to justify my shorter blogs? Maybe? However, whatever we're lacking in story discussion, we can make up for with puns and memes!!! This episode has 'em in abundance!!!

Fifthly, the puns. Holy cow, the PUNS. I love King Bumi, if you couldn't tell.

"Kangaroo Island, eh? I hear that place is really hoppin'!" To be honest, I only took this screenshot because I was hungry and this delicious feast was really poppin' with detail.  HAHAHA! What? You can laugh. It's funny... 

Katara: "Let us leave!"
Bumi: "Lettuce leaf?"

Dad? Is that you?

It's also an interesting bit of trivia that The King of Omashu is in fact Rocky Balboa (SPOILER ALERT, the purple robe is his warm up jacket before getting into the ring):

In this shot, Floppsy actually looks like the king xD.  "Ah, that's good, my slave. Scratch a little bit lower, perhaps?"

King Bumi, I CHOOSE YOU!!

Sixth reason why this episode rocks: The first earthbending fight! The fight itself is pretty entertaining, but the best move BY FAR came afterwards.

How awesome is this? Bumi tunnels underground and pops up on the balcony!

Seventhly, the reunion between Bumi and Aang is touching, even though you probably saw it coming.

The eighth and final reason is definitely the most important from my usual story-focused perspective. At the end of this episode, King Bumi lays out the main quest/objective for the entire show, right along with a platter of metaphorical skinless chicken. Bumi tells Aang that he must defeat Firelord Ozai, and to do so, he must master the 4 elements to become a fully-realized Avatar. Pretty straightforward... Or is it??

Uh, do I need to explain this screenshot? Negative, sir.

I must admit, I was surprised at how much this scene touched me. Bumi is the first friend of Aang's that is seen alive! I can only guess at the love and happiness Aang experienced when reunited with his old buddy. And to top it off, they rode the world's largest superslide together, just like old times. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that old people can still be young at heart. Bumi will definitely be an inspiration for me as I get older.

Conclusion: I enjoyed this episode quite a lot. Yes, it's more kiddish than normal, yes the themes were wildly apparent, yes, the animation was still a bit whacky. But this one proved how much heart went into these episodes. It was genuinely funny and made me laugh. It kind of had a Scooby Doo vibe to it. A grin was planted on my face for the majority of it (this might just be nostalgia creeping in). 

On a scale of 1 to My Cabbages!,  I rate The King of Omashu at 7.5 lettuce leaves.

But before we leaf, I have a challenge for you:

Please reflect on an old friend or family member who has shown you that old people can be fun too! 

For me, it was my Grandpa Don. I was about 6 years old. One day on a camping trip, he told me to grab the largest rock I could find in the forest. I came back with a giant (maybe 10-pound) rock with quartz veins running through it. Grandpa looked at it and gasped.  "This one is special, boy. It's the money rock." I couldn't believe it, I knew this one was special, and now my grandpa was telling me it had special powers. "Every time you throw this rock, money will fly up from the ground!" he exclaimed. Even at age six I was pretty skeptical, but I had to try it. So my Grandpa gave me a general area to shoot for, I aimed, and threw the rock with all my might.  BAM!!! CHING!!! To my amazement, several quarters flew out of the ground! I thought I had hit the jackpot, and couldn't imagine all the cool toys I was going to buy with it!  

This went on for a solid 10 minutes until I had amassed probably $10 in quarters from my magic money rock. Grandpa told me "only certain areas are magical," so it took some trial and error to get all the money.  Even after he explained that there was "only so much magic in those rocks," I was the happiest kid in the world. Obviously $10 was a lot of money as a kid back then. While I thanked my Grandpa for telling me to get the rock, it took me some time to understand what had actually happened. See, while Grandpa told me to search for a special rock, he buried $10 in quarters under the gravel in the campground. Every time I threw the rock (of course in the general areas he told me to), it kicked up the quarters. So with just $10 in pocket change and a brilliant idea, my Grandpa made me the happiest kid in the world.  It was something pretty small, but I'll never forget it.