Cabbage merchant

"earth"

- My cabbages!

The cabbage merchant was an Earth Kingdom salesman who specialized in selling cabbages, yet was constantly plagued by misfortune during his business endeavors. He continually had his cabbages destroyed or damaged after encountering Team Avatar and their enemies. However, sometime before 120 ASC, he founded Cabbage Corp, a company which produces automobiles and other technologies.

History
The cabbage merchant traveled to many locations in the Earth Kingdom in his profession, selling cabbages out of his cart, which was repeatedly destroyed, usually by Aang when he was fleeing from a foe or some other situation, to which he would exclaim "My cabbages!"

When the cabbage merchant was trying to enter Omashu, his cart was destroyed by a troop of overzealous earthbending guards. He later obtained a new cart filled with more cabbages, only to have it be destroyed again by the Avatar and his companions when they were riding on the Omashu delivery system. Following this, he demanded "Off with their heads, one for each head of cabbage!" during their subsequent trial, but King Bumi threw them a feast instead to the merchant's shock and annoyance. His cart was destroyed for a third and final time in Omashu by King Bumi and Aang while they rode the mail system again.



At the seedy merchants pier, his cart was destroyed by Aang when he airbent the cart while being chased by pirates, causing him to yell "This place is worse than Omashu!" The cabbage merchant was among other refugees waiting at Full Moon Bay for a ferry to Ba Sing Se; while waiting, the ferry's passport attendant told him he could not bring his cabbages due to the risk of a cabbage slug infestation. The cabbage merchant was distraught at this, thinking there could not possibly be cabbage slugs on his cabbages. However, the attendant ordered his cart to be destroyed by a security platypus bear over the screams of the merchant. Nevertheless, her suspicions were proven correct when a cabbage slug was found among the cabbages. The cabbage merchant was severely traumatized by this experience and had to be carried away by the security officers.

In Ba Sing Se, an escaped rabaroo ate his cabbages, to which he responded by exasperatedly saying, "My cabb... Oh forget it," and walked off to sob over his predicament. While on Ember Island, Sokka mentioned the cabbage merchant as a "surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage", one of the sources of information for the Fire Nation play about Team Avatar.

Legacy


A statue of the cabbage merchant and his cart was built in his honor outside Cabbage Corp's headquarters in Republic City.

Trivia

 * The cabbage merchant was meant to be a one-time character, intended to appear in only one episode.
 * Despite his cart being destroyed and supposedly not allowed in Ba Sing Se, he was seen with them in the capital.
 * The cabbage merchant has also been referred to as "our lovable loser, the cabbage merchant".
 * The cabbage merchant can be seen in the PS2 and Gamecube version of the Avatar: The Last Airbender video game.
 * The cabbage merchant was voiced by James Sie, who also voiced Oyaji in the original series, and later provided the voice of Cabbage Corp owner Lau Gan-Lan in The Legend of Korra.
 * He was seen in the Avatar Extras promo before the episodes with the Extras were released.
 * The cabbage merchant is the only known character who was not part of Team Avatar to have a statue of themselves in Republic City.
 * Since he founded Cabbage Corp sometime before 120 ASC, the cabbage merchant is the first known inhabitant of the Avatar World who founded a private company.