Book 1: Water

Chapter 5

The King of Omashu

WHAT HAPPENED?

The trio visits the great city of Omashu. Aang takes the siblings sledding through the city’s mail delivery system; destroying a lot of property and are taken before the whacky king. The king outs Aang as the Avatar and challenges him to three tests in exchange for Katara and Sokka’s freedom. The last challenge is to fight the king, who happens to be a powerful earth-bender. Based on the challenges, Aang figures out that the king is actually his old friend, Bumi. King Bumi gives Aang advice and sends them on their way.

WHAT TO TAKE AWAY

By far, this scene holds a place in my heart as one of the funniest in this series.

The three challenges are based on things not being what they seem and require a slightly different approach to solve. Through their duel, Bumi tries to teach Aang to face his battles head on instead of being evasive like an air-bender. This lesson goes hand in hand with becoming an earth-bender, as well as the Avatar.

Where did that rock come from?

The challenges force Aang to use different tactics to solve them. He then has to face Bumi head on, not to defeat him, but to end the match in a draw. Thinking outside the box could help him face his battles head on, but how does one fit the other?

Also, why doesn’t Bumi just come out and tell Aang the truth instead of putting his friends in mortal danger to teach the Avatar a lesson? To play devil’s advocate, the war has been going on for 100 years and Aang has a lot to learn in a short time. It can be argued that Bumi is providing an example of what Aang will have to do throughout his journey; learn lessons through the situations he is placed in. Not everything is cut and dry, and this is a good example of how life really is.

Rock candy!

It’s easy for the audience to predict who the crazy king is due to the flashback earlier in the episode. The Law of Conservation to Detail struck again here with the flashback, meaning that the viewer might be taken out of the story to play “Spot the Foreshadowing”. This means that the drama and suspense dissolved by the time Aang figures it out for himself.

By the way, why doesn’t Bumi just offer to teach Aang earth-bending right there? If he knew some basic earth-bending techniques, Aang wouldn’t have to deal with some of the crap he puts up with later on. And is it set in stone that the Avatar has to master the elements in a certain order? Did I miss that somewhere?

This was another decent filler episode, but it lacked the mystery it was boasting the whole time. But it picks up when the group gets Imprisoned.

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