- This article is about the character in the animated series. For the character in Netflix's live-action series, see Cabbage merchant. For the airbender, see Kai.
| "My cabbages!" |
| — The cabbage merchant on a number of occasions. |
Cai[1] was an Earth Kingdom businessman and founder of Cabbage Corp.[5] Originally an ordinary salesman who specialized in selling cabbages, he was constantly plagued by misfortune during his business endeavors, as his cabbages were continually destroyed or damaged after encountering Team Avatar and their enemies. Inspired by an incident at the Earthen Fire Refinery,[6] the cabbage merchant eventually founded Cabbage Corp, a company that mainly produces automobiles and other technologies,[4] sometime before 120 AG.[7]
History[]
Early life[]
Starting his grand journey, Cai said goodbye to his family.
Cai was born in Gaoling in the southern Earth Kingdom. He inherited a cabbage farm from his family, locally selling vegetables just as his mother and grandmother had done before him. At one point, he married and had a daughter as well as a son[1] named Lau Gan-Lan.[5] Unlike his ancestors, Cai had bigger dreams and wanted to sell his beloved cabbages to many more people. As a result, he ultimately decided to pack up his products and become a traveling salesman, seeking a good place to set up shop. He left his farm and children under the care of his wife, promising to send for his family once he had found the ideal location to settle down.[1]
Over the following period of time, the cabbage merchant traveled to various locations in the Earth Kingdom in his profession, selling cabbages from a cart that was repeatedly destroyed, to which he would exclaim, "My cabbages!"[1][8] As he traveled widely, Cai was able to collect various recipes related to cabbages.[9] He was known to have visited the northwest, southwest, and the southern islands of the kingdom, where he gathered inspiration to develop and perfect some of his cabbage dishes.[10]
Misfortune in Omashu[]
When Cai was trying to enter Omashu, his cart was destroyed by a troop of overzealous earthbending guards.[11] Though horrified at the actions of the guards, the merchant retroactively admitted that his vegetables had indeed lost their freshness during the travel to Omashu. He subsequently obtained a new cart filled with fresh cabbages, and began his attempt at selling his merchandise.[1] Before long, Cai was encountered by the disguised Avatar and his companions. As he nearly harassed Aang into buying cabbages, the merchant realized that the latter's hair was fake. In an attempt to prevent him from blowing their cover, Team Avatar agreed to buy three of his cabbages.[12]
The cabbage merchant was horrified when King Bumi rewarded Team Avatar.
Soon after, his cart and cabbages were destroyed again when Team Avatar crashed into them while riding on the Omashu delivery system. Following this, the outraged merchant alerted the guards to arrest the offenders. He demanded they be beheaded, "One for each head of cabbage!", during their subsequent trial, but King Bumi threw them a feast instead, to Cai's shock and annoyance. His cart was destroyed for a third time in Omashu by King Bumi and Aang while they rode the mail system again.[11][1]
Undeterred, the cabbage merchant aquired yet another cart and continued his attempts at selling cabbages in Omashu. Before long, a group of thugs approached him to buy some cabbages, yet were outraged at the price he was demanding. The thugs were about to rob Cai when a group of adventurers intervened, saving him and his beloved vegetables. To his further joy, the adventurers explained that they also intended to buy one hundred cabbages, earning him one hundred gold pieces. He promptly bought a luxurious new cart.[12]
Cai wrote his family a sad letter after his misfortunes in Omashu.
Eventually, the adventurers returned as they still needed one more cabbage. Having gotten cocky due to his unexpected improvement of fortune, Cai declared that his "luxury greens have gone up in price to meet the current demand", now demanding an absurd amount of gold pieces for just one cabbage. As the group needed the vegetable for King Bumi himself, they paid up. As the adventurers left, the cabbage merchant openly celebrated his new wealth. Unsurprisingly, this attracted attention, and criminals promptly robbed him and destroyed his luxurious cart.[12] Dejected, Cai gathered his cabbages, repaired his old cart, and wrote his family a letter in which he declared Omashu "hostile to cabbages".[1] Afterward, the merchant left the city.[13]
Journey to and work in Ba Sing Se[]
The stunned cabbage merchant was carried away after the traumatic destruction of his cabbages.
At the seedy merchants pier, yet another of his carts was destroyed by Aang when he airbent the cart while being chased by pirates, causing him to yell that the pier was worse than Omashu and walk away dejectedly.[13] Determined to put as much distance between himself and the Avatar as possible, Cai decided to travel to the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se. Along with a new cart and his cabbages, he embarked on a long journey, climbing mountains, crossing rivers, and traveling through jungles and the Si Wong Desert to reach Ba Sing Se.[1] He eventually ended up 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. Cai 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. Cai was severely traumatized by this experience and had to be carried away by the security officers.[14]
Upon arriving in Ba Sing Se, Cai managed to acquire more cabbages. He also noticed a lack of locally sold cabbages, making him eager to enter the market as a sole provider of this vegetable. For a time, his business did well, but ultimately he again encountered Team Avatar.[1] One day, he and other city residents were surprised by a horde of animals running through the streets, herded by Avatar Aang. His cart was knocked over during the rampage, and an escaped rabaroo started eating his cabbages. Cai responded by exasperatedly saying, "My cabb- Oh forget it," and walked off to sob over his predicament.[1][15]
In response to Pu-on Tim's questions, Cai retold his negative experiences with Team Avatar.
Soon after, the cabbage merchant met Pu-on Tim, an acclaimed Earth Kingdom playwright who was writing a play about Avatar Aang at that time. The playwright was asking residents of Ba Sing Se whether they had information on the "heroic Avatar", causing Cai to shout that Aang and his comrades were "a villainous group of cabbage destroyers". Pun-on Tim expressed skepticism about the Avatar being evil, whereupon the cabbage merchant retold his many negative encounters with Team Avatar.[1] Because of Cai's considerable knowledge on the topic, Pu-on Tim later mentioned him as "a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage" as one of the sources of information for his play.[16]
After the Avatar had left Ba Sing Se, Cai's fortunes began to seriously improve and his business prospered. Once the Hundred Year War also ended, the cabbage merchant sent for his family to live in Ba Sing Se. To him, it seemed like his dream for a new life with a much greater number of customers was finally coming true. One day, however, he noticed Momo harassing his cabbage stand. Knowing that the winged lemur was the Avatar's companion, Cai was horrified that the bane of his business had seemingly returned to Ba Sing Se. Contrary to his fears, the merchant was approached by a young man who introduced himself as Zuko, the new Fire Lord. The latter explained that he had heard about the damages Team Avatar had done to Cai, and offered to buy all his cabbages to make up for it. Cai was overjoyed by the apology as well as offer of money, and readily accepted.[1]
At the invitation of Zuko and Iroh, Cai and his family organized a cabbage feast at the Jasmine Dragon, attended by Team Avatar.
When Zuko expressed uncertainty about what to do with the cabbages, Cai proposed a feast. Zuko and Iroh offered the Jasmine Dragon for the celebration, inviting the merchant, his family, and the rest of Team Avatar. Cai and his wife cooked many dishes, including cabbage soup, cookies, noodles with Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Iroh. At this point, he mused that maybe the Avatar was not so bad after all. Furthermore, the visit to the Jasmine Dragon gave Cai the idea to eventually open his own restaurant.[1]
At one point, the merchant also took in a turkey duck as a pet and named her Daisy. At one point after the feast at the Jasmine Dragon, Cai attended the Flying Koi Carnival. As the merchant was picking up a few cabbages that had fallen to the ground, he and Daisy were accidental witnesses of the kidnapping of Rose, a wealthy young woman, in the Middle Ring Earthmarket, where he owned a booth. The kidnapper took Daisy from the merchant as collateral for his silence.[17][18]
Settling down[]
Cai let Aang and the Air Acolytes use his restaurant to celebrate Yangchen's Festival, provided they ordered at least one dish from him.
Eventually, Cai and his family left Ba Sing Se. They opened a small restaurant called "Cabbage Delicacies Bistro" in Cranefish Town, as the merchant believed a restaurant would be a safer place to keep his beloved cabbages than a cart.[1] When Avatar Aang visited his establishment in 102 AG, he immediately recognized him and assumed a protective stance over his cabbages, stating that bad things always happen to his cabbages when the Avatar was around. Regardless, due to his business being slow, he allowed Aang and the Air Acolytes to stay at his restaurant and even eat their own food, though only under the condition that they at least ordered one dish; he subsequently prepared his signature dish for them, namely cabbage cookies. When Aang entered into the Spirit World, he became fearful once more for the safety of his cabbages and moments later, an earthquake tipped over his cabbages.[2]
The cabbage merchant was inspired by Satoru's forklift, triggering his interest in machines.
As General Old Iron prepared to attack the village around the Earthen Fire Refinery, the villagers needed to evacuate, the cabbage merchant being one of them. Forced by Katara to leave his restaurant, he tearfully lamented the loss of his cabbages once more. When the waterbender attempted to comfort him by saying that they would get him new cabbages, Cai claimed that it would not "be the same". While sobbing, however, he suddenly noticed Satoru driving his forklift and, with an inspired look in his eyes, exclaimed what a "remarkable" machine it was. After the conclusion of the battle between Avatar Aang and the ancient spirit, the cabbage merchant approached Satoru and asked if he was the one who built the forklift.[6]
This encounter would inspire Cai to shift his attention to technology.[19] He initially continued to maintain and expand his Cabbage Delicacies Bistro, using the money he made there to fund his new enterprise.[10] The cabbage merchant eventually bid his produce-selling days goodbye and set up a company, Cabbage Corp, orientated to the manufacturing of affordable automobiles, consumer as well as commercial machinery, and other technologies.[19] Due to his fondness for his favorite vegetable, the company also continued to trade in cabbages as a side business.[20]
Under his leadership, Cabbage Corp became one of the largest companies in the world.[19] Considering his countless past misadventures, Cai always remained extremely concerned for his company's safety, and consequently organized insurance policies for nearly every kind of natural disaster, authority intervention, and other threats.[20] His son, Lau Gan-Lan, later took over its ownership.[5][21]
Legacy[]
Cai's statue depicts him with his cart and beloved cabbages.
Outside Cabbage Corp's headquarters, a metal statue of Cai was erected in order to commemorate his first stand[5] in Cranefish Town, by then renamed to Republic City.[22] Perched atop a high pillar, he is depicted standing, while raising a cabbage in the palm of his hand, next to his cart full of cabbages.[21]
The cabbage merchant's paranoid insurance policies, maintained by Lau Gan-Lan, proved to be a blessing to Cabbage Corp when the company faced and survived a series of crises, disasters, revolutions, and wars in the 170s AG, weathering these better than many competitors.[20]
Personality[]
Cai adored cabbages.
Cai excessively revered cabbages, to the degree that other people often considered his behavior odd or off-putting.[8][12] He treated his vegetables with great care and wished for all those around him to also realize how great cabbages were;[12] accordingly, he usually reacted with horror or extreme anger when someone harmed his products.[8] For instance, he would freeze in shock[14] or demand the death sentence for those damaging his business.[11] His repeated bad luck in protecting his cabbages made Cai very paranoid, a trait he kept even after rising to lead a large company.[2][20]
A bit vain, the cabbage merchant bought a luxurious cart during his short surge of fortune in Omashu.
When he was not hampered by his obsession with cabbages, however, the merchant also displayed a shrewd business sense.[12][19] Furthermore, he had a soft side, as displayed in his love for his family[1] and care for his pet turkey duck Daisy.[17][18] He was also a bit vain, and tended to revel in any money he made during phases of good fortune.[12]
Abilities[]
In his days as traveling salesman and restaurant owner, Cai was generally unsuccessful at doing business, partially due to bad luck and partially due to his obsession with cabbages.[2][8] However, he was a talented chef[2][9] and proved very adept at leading a major manufacturing company.[19]
Relatives[]
| Cai |
| Cai's wife[1] |
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| Lau Gan-Lan |
| Daughter[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appearances[]
Avatar: The Last Airbender[]
Book One: Water (水)[]
- 105. "The King of Omashu"
- 109. "The Waterbending Scroll"
Book Two: Earth (土)[]
- 212. "The Serpent's Pass"
- 215. "The Tales of Ba Sing Se"
Avatar comics[]
Graphic novels[]
Avatar books[]
Avatar games[]
Trivia[]
- The cabbage merchant was meant to be a one-time character, intended to appear in only one episode.[23]
- Despite his cart being destroyed and supposedly not allowed in either Omashu or Ba Sing Se, he was seen with them in each city.[11][15]
- The cabbage merchant has also been referred to as "our lovable loser, the cabbage merchant".[24]
- An e-card from early in the show's production states that the cabbage merchant was only selling cabbage temporarily and that "the real [action was] in cantaloupes".[25]
- The cabbage merchant can be seen in the PlayStation 2 and GameCube version of the Avatar: The Last Airbender video game.
- The cabbage merchant was voiced by James Sie, who later provided the voice of Cabbage Corp owner and son of the cabbage merchant, 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 was inspired by a character from The Electric Company who would stack cans only to have them knocked over. The idea for the cabbage merchant to be recurring came from three characters in Cowboy Bebop, Antonio, Carlos, and Jobim, who would randomly run into the main characters.[26]