Bumi (King of Omashu)


 * This article is about the King of Omashu. For Aang and Katara's eldest son, see Bumi (nonbender).

"earth"

- I hope you will think like a mad genius!

Bumi was the wild-eyed, eccentric, elderly King of Omashu. As a child, Bumi had been a close friend of Avatar Aang and he remained Aang's only friend from before the Hundred Year War to be confirmed as still alive. He became an old and wild man, prone to cackling and snorting laughter at unfunny jokes. Despite his supercentenarian age and his apparent frailty, Bumi was 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 arose out of the fact that he always kept 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 seemed to appreciate. Although Bumi seemed senile, he was in fact a brilliant and patient tactician, willing to wait until the opportune moment to strike to best effect. Bumi acted the same during a quiet, peaceful meal as he did when his city was under attack and he rarely explained his actions, which tended to infuriate his subordinates.

Early life


King Bumi was born in 12 BSC in the city of Omashu. As a child, he was close friends with Aang, and enjoyed using the Omashu delivery system as "the world's greatest super slide". Sometime later in his life, Bumi was crowned King of Omashu.

Testing the Avatar
After being freed from his iceberg, Aang returned to Omashu in order to show his friends Sokka and Katara the mail delivery system, or rather, how 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 one hundred 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 thigh at him. Now refusing to let them leave, Bumi demanded that they be thrown into the chamber, only to be asked by his guard whether he meant the good chamber or the bad one. He told him to take them to the chamber that used to be bad, but was newly refurbished. Bumi noted that he should number them and ordered 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 blackmailed Aang into completing three tasks for him, or Sokka and Katara would be encased in jennamite.

Aang successfully completed the first two tests, which involved collecting a key from inside a waterfall and finding Bumi's pet, Flopsie. King Bumi then instructed Aang to choose an opponent to duel as the final test. The king presented two different opponents for Aang to choose from, both intimidating in appearance and bearing both armor and weapons. The airbender chose to battle the apparently frail King, though quickly realized his mistake when Bumi threw off his royal 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. While Aang seemed to have Bumi in a corner after this, ready to strike with his staff, he failed to notice 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.

Old friends reunited


Before releasing Sokka and Katara, the king demanded that Aang guess his name and gave him a few minutes to think on it, leaving Sokka and Katara minutes away from becoming permanently encased in jennamite. At first, Aang was clueless, but as he thought about the challenges, he realized that each one was designed to make him think differently than he normally would; he solved the riddle with the words, "Bumi, you're a mad genius." Bumi said that he knew it was Aang the whole time and that he had not changed, literally. He then explained to Aang that strength and bending alone would not be enough to defeat Fire Lord Ozai and that when it came time for Aang to face him, "[he] hope[s] [Aang] will think like a mad genius". After Bumi freed Aang's friends from the jennamite, he and Aang 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.

Imprisoned
Shortly after Team Avatar's departure, Omashu was attacked by the Fire Nation. King Bumi and the military captain Yung stood atop a wall and watched the opposing army as they launched flaming projectiles toward the city. When asked about the action of Omashu's military, Bumi responded by telling Yung to do nothing, and began laughing maniacally. Before long, the city had surrendered.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka later returned to Omashu, hoping Bumi could serve as Aang's earthbending teacher. They were informed by Yung about the unconditional surrender and Bumi's captivity in the city. Eventually, the Omashu Resistance made a deal with the governor of Omashu to exchange Tom-Tom, the governor's son who had run astray, for the king. Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee met Team Avatar near the base of a statue in Omashu to execute the deal. A crane lowered King Bumi's cage, which was suspended in the air by a metal chain, to the ground. The encasement tightly covered his entire body, excluding the head. As the Fire Nation girls discussed the losses that would be inflicted by Bumi's release, the king nodded in approval. The deal was not passed, and Bumi was again lifted to the air. Not willing to give up, Aang flew up to the cage and tried to smash the metal chain to free Bumi, who was surprised by the young airbender's effort. The chain broke, and Bumi's cage plummeted to a delivery chute below, along with Aang.



After a chase down the city's large mail-delivery chutes, Bumi managed to halt Azula's pursuit by destroying her cart using earthbending. 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 did however teach Aang about the importance of neutral jing, and 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 Beifong as his earthbending instructor.

Liberation of Omashu
Bumi spent several weeks imprisoned in his city, waiting for the right moment to escape. That moment came on the Day of Black Sun, where he broke out of his prison by earthbending with his face. Taking advantage of the firebenders' 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 jennamite, retaking his city in minutes.

Order of the White Lotus


Before the arrival of Sozin's Comet, Bumi met with the Avatar's gang again at Ba Sing Se, along with Masters Pakku, Piandao, and Jeong Jeong and was revealed to be a member of the Order of the White Lotus. Bumi was the only one to notice that the group was missing a "very important member", as Aang and Momo had disappeared, but comically asked the group where Momo was. He then stated that as long as Momo and Aang were together, they had nothing to worry about. Sokka asked why they were all together and Bumi said "All old people know each other. Don't you know that?"

Later, while explaining to Team Avatar about how he liberated Omashu, he declared himself the world's greatest earthbender ever. Toph happened to hear this, questioned the accuracy of the statement, causing the two to exchange insults. They eventually decided to have an earthbending duel to settle who was the better of the two, with Sokka serving as the referee. The earthbenders kept fighting until Sozin's Comet was near approaching and it was time for them to begin their attacks. The match was called a draw, and it was said that there would have to be a rematch.

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.

Legacy
Aang and Katara later named their first son after Bumi.

Abilities


King Bumi was a master earthbender who was one of, if not the best in the world, though this was contested by Toph Beifong. His style was very conservative and stressed waiting for exactly the right moment to strike; however, when said moment did come, he demonstrated extremely powerful techniques. Bumi could levitate entire houses, extremely large pieces of stone, create fissures with kicks into the ground, turn ordinary dirt into quicksand, quickly tunnel through the ground, and, most extraordinarily, earthbend exclusively with his face with little-to-no handicap. With rock pillars, Bumi could launch himself or heavy metal objects such as tanks into the air, and once toppled a large metal statue from underneath. Bumi could also bend jennamite. Also, despite his advanced age, he was highly agile, able to reach considerable distances with a single jump, propelling himself with his earthbending.

Trivia

 * The iris in Bumi's right eye is a faint shade of white, indicating the possibility that he is blind in that eye.
 * Bumi's headdress is reminiscent of that worn by the legendary Chinese general, Lu Bu, which also had two giant pheasant feathers. Such headgear is commonly worn by high ranking ancient Chinese officers and generals, most often in the Beijing Opera.
 * The name "Bumi" means "earth" in Malaysian, Indonesian, and several Indian languages, and is derived from the Sanskrit word "bhumi", which also means "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, which translates as "to spread rice".
 * He was the second oldest known living character during the original series at 112 years old, after Guru Pathik, who was 150 years old. The two are the only individuals known to have witnessed both wartime arrivals of Sozin's Comet.
 * Although Bumi told Aang that he would see him again when the time was right, he is not known to have done so again during the series.
 * When Aang was preparing to leave Omashu, Bumi said that they would need Momo. Later, when Bumi met the rest of Team Avatar prior to the arrival of Sozin's Comet, he said that they were missing someone important and asked where Momo was.
 * Bumi claimed to be the most powerful earthbender ever, which Toph also claimed. She possessed a seismic sense that gave her a deeper connection to the earth than most earthbenders and allowed her to perceive nearly everything around her and the then-unique metalbending; feats Bumi never exhibited. Bumi could earthbend without moving his limbs, which Toph could also do. However, Bumi could earthbend without having physical contact with the earth  unlike Toph. He also launched several Fire Nation soldiers from behind without looking. Regardless, their respective claims are still debatable.
 * When Bumi was first introduced, there was no indication that he was royalty, suggesting that he somehow earned the title of King of Omashu.
 * Bumi was originally supposed to be a frail old man, but the creators thought that he looked better with muscular attributes.
 * Bumi's transformation in his debut episode is similar to the transformation Master Roshi underwent when the Kamehameha Wave was first introduced.
 * Bumi was the oldest and first master earthbender shown in the series.
 * Bumi was the only high-ranking member of the Order of the White Lotus to never train anybody from Team Avatar. However, the tasks he made Aang accomplish to develop his ability to think "like a mad genius" as well as his advice on jings could be considered mental training.