Bumi (King of Omashu)

"earth"

- I hope you think like a mad genius!

King Bumi is the wild-eyed, eccentric, elderly king of Omashu. As a child, Bumi was a close friend of Aang and is the only one of Aangs friends that Aang knew before The War that is known to still be alive. He has become an old and eccentric man, prone to cackling, snorting laughter at unfunny jokes. Despite his age and his apparent frailty, Bumi is an Earthbending master and quite fit for his old age, himself claiming at one point to be "the most powerful Earthbender you'll ever see".

Bumi's eccentricity arises out of the fact that he always keeps his mind "open to the possibilities". As a child, Bumi decided to use the Omashu mail delivery system as a chute ride, for which Aang dubbed him "a mad genius", a name that Bumi seems to appreciate. Although Bumi seems senile, he is in fact a brilliant and patient tactician, willing to wait until the opportune moment to strike to best effect. Bumi acts the same during a quiet, peaceful meal as he does when his city is under attack, and he rarely explains his actions, which tends to infuriate his underlings.

History


In the episode "The King of Omashu", Aang returned to Omashu in order to show his friends Sokka and Katara the mail delivery system (in particular, they wished to use it as a slide). After accidentally destroying a cartload of cabbages belonging to the Cabbage Merchant, they were arrested and brought before King Bumi. However, Aang did not recognize his old friend, who was now 100 years older than when they last met. When asked what their punishment should be, Bumi told his guards to "throw them... a feast!"

During the feast, Bumi tricked Aang into Airbending by throwing a chicken wing at him. Now refusing to let them leave, Bumi demanded that the three be taken to "the refurbished chamber that was once bad" - in fact a comfortable sleeping chamber. After a relaxing night's sleep, Aang woke up to find his friends gone. King Bumi blackmails Aang into completing three tasks for him, or Sokka and Katara will be encased in Jennomite.

Aang successfully completed the first two tests (collecting a key from inside a waterfall and finding Bumi's pet Flopsie). King Bumi instructed Aang to choose an opponent to duel as the final test. The King presented two different opponents for Aang to choose from, both formidable-looking in their own respects, and told Aang to "point to [his] opponent". Aang pointed to the apparently frail King but quickly realized his mistake when Bumi threw off his robes and flexed his muscles, revealing himself to be a powerful and muscular Earthbender. Although Bumi had the upper hand during the fight, particularly against the run-and-evade tactics typical of Airbenders, Aang eventually impressed the old man by creating a tornado to counter a powerful attack from the Earthbender. Although Aang seemed to have Bumi in a corner after this, ready to strike with his staff, what he failed to notice was that Bumi had summoned a large mound of rock a few feet above Aang's head. Bumi, however, was satisfied with Aang's performance and allowed the match to be called a draw.



However, before releasing Sokka and Katara, the King demanded that Aang guess his name and gives him a few minutes to think on it. At first, Aang is clueless, but as he thinks about the challenges he realizes that each one was designed to make him think differently than he normally would, and he solves the riddle with the words, "Bumi, you're a mad genius". Bumi explained to Aang that strength and bending alone would not be enough to defeat the Fire Lord, and that when it came time for Aang to face him, "I hope [he] will think like a mad genius". After Bumi freed Aang's friends from the Jennomite (in fact made of edible rock candy), Aang and Bumi spent an enjoyable day using the Omashu mail delivery system as a chute ride, just like old times, and destroyed the same cabbage cart from earlier. Aang and his friends then left Omashu to continue their journey.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka returned to Omashu in "Return to Omashu", hoping that Bumi would act as Aang's Earthbending teacher; however, the group found that the city had been taken over by the Fire Nation. After helping Omashu's citizens and army to escape their imprisonment within the city, Aang attempted to free Bumi as well. After a chase down the city's large mail-delivery chutes, Aang and Bumi managed to escape a pursuing Azula. However, Bumi disappointed Aang with the statement that he could not leave Omashu just yet, as he was waiting for the proper time to strike against the Fire Nation from within, revealing that he, despite the metal cage he was kept in, was still capable of bending. Bumi advised Aang to seek an instructor skilled in neutral jing, or doing nothing (as Bumi himself put it, someone who "waits and listens"). It was this advice that eventually led Aang to accept Toph Bei Fong as his Earthbending instructor.

Bumi would spend several weeks imprisoned in his city, waiting for the right moment to escape. That moment came on the Day of Black Sun. He broke out of his prison by Earthbending with his face. Taking advantage of the Firebender's loss of power, he single-handedly liberated Omashu and destroyed Ozai's statue at the top of the city, sending it sliding down and off the edge of the city, before laughing and taking a bite of Jennomite, retaking his city in minutes. He later joined the Order of the White Lotus at Ba Sing Se.

Before the arrival of Sozin's Comet, Bumi met with the Avatar's gang again at Ba Sing Se, along with Master Pakku, Piandao, and Jeong Jeong, and is revealed to be a member of the Order of the White Lotus. Bumi is the only one to notice that the group is missing a "very important member", (as Aang and Momo have disappeared), but comically asks the group where Momo is. He then states that as long as Momo and Aang are together, they have nothing to worry about.

He joined in the Order's successful liberation of Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth Kingdom, using impressive displays of his Earthbending to destroy many Fire Nation tanks, in one instance by stacking them atop each other. He presumably returned to Omashu after the war.

Abilities


King Bumi is a master Earthbender, one of the, if not the, best in the world (though this is contested by some). His style is very conservative and stresses waiting for exactly the right moment to strike; however, when said moment does come, he demonstrates extremely powerful techniques. Bumi can levitate extremely large pieces of stone (when fighting Aang he levitates one as big as a bus), create fissures with kicks into the ground, turn ordinary dirt into quicksand, and, most extraordinarily, Earthbend exclusively with his face with little or no handicap. He can also bend jennomite. These impressive abilities are demonstrated in "The King of Omashu" and "Return to Omashu".

His great power is demonstrated by his ease in facing overwhelming groups of opponents and defeating them. On the Day of Black Sun, Bumi single handedly liberates all of Omashu, taking advantage of the Fire Nation soldier's loss of Firebending. He uses his Earthbending to destroy the metal bridge connecting to Omashu and vandalizes the statue of Ozai with a happy face and topples it. He is also seen shooting multiple Fire Nation forts out of the city at the same time. During the Liberation of Ba Sing Se, he is a great asset to the Order of the White Lotus. Bumi bravely takes on at least a dozen tanks with comet-enhanced Firebenders inside of them and defeats them all, stacking them in a pillar of wreckage. It is assumed that Bumi returned to Omashu after the War. Though nothing has been confirmed, it is safe to assume that Bumi has passed on by the time Avatar Korra is born.

Trivia

 * The name "Bumi" means "Earth" in the Malaysian, Tamil, and Indonesian language, which is in turn derived from the Hindi or Sanskrit "Bhumi", meaning "Earth". However, since the word "bumi" with that exact meaning does not exist in Chinese, the negotiation letter in "Return to Omashu" had his name transliterated as 布米 (bù mǐ) which translate as 'to spread rice'.
 * Bumi appears to have, to some degree, a knowledge of Airbenders, as when he and Aang fight in "The King of Omashu" he states that Aang's strategy of "avoid and evade" is a typical Airbender fighting style. Given he was an old friend of Aang's, this is possible.
 * Bumi's voice actor, André Sogliuzzo, also plays Hakoda.
 * Bumi is one of the few characters to have underarm hair.
 * Bumi is one of the few people who live throughout the entire war, since he knew Aang before he was in the iceberg. He is the second oldest living man in their world for being 112 years old, after Guru Pathik, who's 150 years old. There is the possibility, though, that Bumi is one or two years younger than Aang, making him somewhere around 110 or 111 years old.
 * Although Bumi tells Aang that he'll see him when the time is right during "Return to Omashu", Aang never meets Bumi again during the series. They most likely met again off-screen after the war.
 * In his first appearance when Aang is preparing to leave, Bumi says that they will be needing Momo. Later in "Sozin's Comet Part 2: Old Masters", he says that they are missing someone important and then asks where Momo is.
 * Bumi and Guru Pathik are the only people mentioned in the series to have witnessed the two arrivals of the comet, one at the start of the war and one at the end of the season.
 * Although he claims to be the "most powerful Earthbender [Aang] will ever see", Toph Bei Fong displays two skills which Bumi doesn't seem to possess. One is her Seismic Sense, which not only allows her to see despite her blindness, but also gives her a deeper connection with the Earth than most Earthbenders have. The other and most prominent one is her Metalbending, something which Bumi never displays any knowledge of. However, in "Return to Omashu", he is able to Earthbend without having physical contact with the Earth (something Toph is incapable of), so the claims both Bumi and Toph made are still debatable.
 * King Bumi is of the few people alive to have a firsthand knowledge of Airbenders from experiences prior to the war.
 * When Bumi is first introduced (in a flashback), there was no indication that he was royalty, hinting that he somehow earned the title of King of Omashu.
 * Bumi is the oldest and first Master Earthbender shown in the series.
 * King Bumi's advice to Aang about thinking like a mad genius to defeat Fire Lord Ozai was followed, as Aang was able to avoid murdering Ozai while removing his chances of being a future threat (using Energybending, a previously unknown technique, to take away his Firebending).

Bumi Bumi