Cabbage merchant

"earth"

- My cabbages!

The cabbage merchant was an unfortunate Earth Kingdom salesman who specialized in selling cabbages. He continually had his cabbages destroyed or damaged after encountering Team Avatar and their enemies. However, later he founded Cabbage Corp, a company which produces automobiles and other technologies.

History
He appeared in many locations in the Earth Kingdom, selling cabbages out of his cart, which inevitably was destroyed, usually by Aang when he was fleeing from a foe or some other situation, which caused him to yell his catchphrase "My cabbages!"

When the cabbage merchant was trying to enter Omashu, his cart was destroyed by a troop of overzealous earthbending guards. Somehow he obtained another cart filled with more cabbages, only to have it be destroyed again by the Avatar and his companions when riding on the mail 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. His cart was destroyed one final time by King Bumi and Aang while riding the mail system again.

At the seedy merchants pier, his cart was destroyed by Aang when he airbended the cart while being chased by pirates. He yelled "This place is worse than Omashu!" Among other refugees, the cabbage merchant was fleeing to Ba Sing Se; while waiting to get on the ferry to the city, the ferry's security told him he could not bring his cabbages due to the risk of a cabbage slug infestation. There actually was a cabbage slug on it, though. The cart was destroyed by a security platypus bear.

In Ba Sing Se, a rabaroo ate his cabbages, to which he responded by exasperatedly saying, "My cabb....Oh forget it", and walked off. He was later seen sobbing in the background. While on Ember Island, Sokka mentioned him 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 martial arts consultant of Avatar, Sifu Kisu, was originally going to have the cabbage merchant as his counterpart in the show. Eventually, however, the creators decided to portray Piandao after the consultant because the cabbage merchant was too small.
 * The cabbage merchant was meant to be a one time character, to only appear in that one episode.
 * When the platypus bear destroyed his cart, it was said by the creators that a cabbage slug could be seen if the tape is slowed down between 05:10 and 05:11.
 * A cabbage stand could be seen being destroyed in Gaipan by the flood initiated by Jet and his Freedom Fighters.
 * 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 "It's 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 is referenced in The Legend of Korra by the name of Cabbage Corp, an automotive manufacturer that mass produces a cheap, cost effective automobile known as the "Cabbage Car".
 * The cabbage merchant was played by the same voice actor as Oyaji.
 * Pu-on Tim supposedly came in contact with the cabbage merchant at some point, as the Ember Island Players poster names one of its sources as "a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage".
 * He was seen in the Avatar Extras promo before the episodes with the Extras were released.