| “ | I hope you will think like a mad genius! | „ |
| ~ King Bumi to Aang. |
| “ | Taking back my city! You got no fire power and it's PAYBACK TIME!! | „ |
| ~ King Bumi facing the Fire Nation Soldiers. |
King Bumi is a supporting character in the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He is a lifelong childhood friend of Aang shortly before Fire Lord Sozin started the war and in later years he became the king of his hometown called Omashu.
He is voiced by André Sogliuzzo.
Biography[]
Childhood[]
Bumi when he first met Aang
Bumi was born and raised in the city of Omashu. As a child, he became close friends with Aang, showing him how to use the Omashu delivery system as "the world's greatest super slide", which caused the young airbender to label Bumi as a "mad genius". The two kids also used to play in the Omashu sewer system.
Sometime later in his life, Bumi was crowned King of Omashu. Under his rule, Omashu was turned from a strong but isolated bastion into a center of the Earth Kingdom resistance. He organized the supply of anti-Fire Nation guerrilla groups with arms across the entire continent, and invited inventors to his city so they could develop new weapons for the Earth Kingdom. Despite his efforts, however, the Hundred Year War increasingly turned against the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Nation advanced ever closer to Omashu, gradually closing the city's supply routes. Regardless, he remained eager to support anyone willing to oppose the invaders. At some point, he joined the Order of the White Lotus.
100 Years Later[]
In the Water Tribe saga, not long after Aang was released from the iceberg by Katara and Sokka, they visit Omashu (though Aang was unaware that Bumi was still alive at first) and unintentionally cause trouble there which led to one of the Earth Kingdom guards to take Aang and his friends straight to King Bumi. Bumi (now old aged) was surprised that Aang was still a kid upon first glance at him when his guards brought them in for sentencing. Rather than punishing them he threw them "a feast" and had a conversation. During the feast, Bumi tricked Aang into airbending by throwing a chicken thigh at him, revealing his identity as the Avatar. Now refusing to let them leave, Bumi demanded that they be thrown into a chamber, causing a confusion between him and a guard as to which chamber the former was referring – the good chamber or the bad chamber that had been newly refurbished. Bumi noted that the chambers should be numbered, but resolved the misunderstanding by declaring that the three be taken to "the refurbished chamber that was once bad". After a relaxing night's sleep, Aang awoke to find his friends missing, as King Bumi had taken them to blackmail Aang into completing three tasks for him, ensuring the Avatar's stay lest Sokka and Katara become encased in jennamite.
King Bumi creates obstacles from the terrain to block off Aang's run.
Aang completes the first two tasks, and when it comes to the third challange, he has to pick someone to fight. Trying to act clever, the Avatar selects the King instead of his other warriors. However, the elderly monarch takes off his robe to reveal himself as an incredibly powerful earthbender with a six pack who towers over him instead of a frail and stooped old man. The two battle, and after they finish in a draw, the King asks Aang one last thing: his name. Aang realizes that the King is his old friend, Bumi, and the two embrace. Bumi shatters the crystal encasing Sokka and Katara, and eats a piece, revealing that jennamite is made from rock candy. Sokka and Katara are surprised to learn that the king is actually Aang's old friend and question Bumi on why he made Aang do all those challenges instead of just telling him who he really was. Bumi explains that, aside from finding it fun to mess with people, as the Avatar, Aang has a difficult task to restore balance to the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai. With how much the world has changed in the hundred years that he had been gone, Aang still has much to learn, and Bumi hopes that when he does, he will think "like a mad genius". Aang thanks Bumi for all he has done and challenges the king in return. The two of them go sliding down the Omashu delivery system like they used to do a century prior, which results in them crashing into the cabbage merchant's cart, just like Team Avatar did before.
In the Earth Kingdom saga, Aang and his friends returned to Omashu so Aang can learn earthbending from King Bumi. Unfortunately, it was attacked and held captive by the Fire Nation. Aang is told by the rebellion that on the day the Fire Nation attacked Bumi surrendered. Aang tries to free Bumi, and rides his metal coffin down the mail system with Princess Azula in hot pursuit. Bumi uses his head to create a large boulder, destroying the cart Azula used to pursue them. Now brought to safety, Aang questions Bumi on why he surrendered. Bumi responds to him that he was waiting for the right moment to strike back, which was why he could not leave. He also informs Aang that he needed to find an earthbending teacher who waited and listened before striking, and that it could not be him. He bids Aang farewell and leaves.
King Bumi liberates his city from the Fire Nation.
Later in the Fire Nation saga, Bumi spent several weeks imprisoned in his city, waiting for the right moment to escape, which 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 mere minutes.
Bumi is also revealed to be part of a secret society called the Order of the White Lotus when Team Avatar (minus Aang and Momo) was looking for Iroh. He participates 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 on top of each other.
Like many of the original Avatar characters, King Bumi died of natural causes long before The Legend of Korra.
Legacy[]
Aang and Katara later named their first son after Bumi.
Personality[]
Bumi was the wild-eyed, eccentric, and 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, at one point claiming himself to be "the most powerful earthbender [anyone] will 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 delivery system as a chute ride, for which Aang dubbed him "a mad genius", a name that Bumi seemed to appreciate. A century later, Bumi still sported this attitude, which often led his enemies, and sometimes even his own subjects, to underestimate him. Despite his often odd behavior, Bumi also deeply cared for his friends, subjects, and his pet Flopsie.
Underneath his senile demeanor, Bumi was a brilliant strategist, always thinking ahead and waiting for the perfect time to strike, which enabled him to take back Omashu single-handedly. He also masterminded a strategy which allowed Omashu to defend itself while also supplying Earth Kingdom forces in other regions during the Hundred Year War.
Powers & Abilites[]
Bumi was one of the most powerful earthbenders in the world.
Despite his supercentenarian age, King Bumi was remarkably strong, sporting a deceptively muscular physique. Likewise, he was a master earthbender who was one of, if not the best in the world. 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, as seen in the episode Sozin's Comet part 2: The Old Masters during the Day of Black Sun to break free from his prison. 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. Likewise, he was very quick to react to threats and highly agile, able to reach considerable distances with a single jump, propelled himself with his earthbending. Bumi may have seismic sense like Toph as he earth-bent several Fire Nation soldiers completely without looking.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Animations[]
Trivia[]
- King 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 (भूमि), 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 布米, 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. However, Bumi was at least perceptive to his surroundings, able to launch several Fire Nation soldiers from behind without looking. Also, Bumi could earthbend without having physical contact with the earth unlike Toph. Regardless, their respective claims are still debatable. However in the official Avatar art book, Toph was confirmed to be the most powerful earthbender in the world.
- 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 from a seemingly feeble old man to a powerful fighter during Aang's trials in Omashu is similar to the transformation Master Roshi from Dragon Ball 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.
