- The King Of Omashu Maybe I’m just a bit harsh on it as important stuff does goes down in the episode. We are introduced to Earthbending and its pretty cool stuff, especially when characters are making quicksand or tearing bits off of walls or seemingly phasing through the ground. And we encounter the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu, as well as its king (who – you guessed it! – becomes increasingly important as the show goes on). Aang, Katara and Sokka arrive at Omashu and while the brother/sister team face a bit of culture shock (“They have buildings here that don’t melt!”), Aang promises them that Omashu is one of the friendliest places in the world. Within minutes, however, he’s disguised himself as an old man by the name of Bonzu Pipinpadaloxicopolis and is getting the gang in trouble. Our heroes decide to slide through the city using the delivery system, an act Aang recalls from his first youth. While training as a monk, his friend Bumi mentioned to him to slide through the city and to open his brain to the possibilities in life. So, yeah, I’m not going to fool around any longer – Bumi is the King of Omashu, something that a blind, deaf, and dumb person could have figured out in about a second. Because he’s an eccentric old fool who laughs at his own awful jokes, he takes Aang prisoner (upon discovering he is the Avatar) and challenges him to a series of acts that will guarantee his safety and the safety of his friends. I had a problem last week with the Fire Nation storyline encroaching on both of the Team Avatar storylines, but if I’m being honest, the more downbeat Zuko moments were needed. It was neat seeing Omashu and meeting Bumi, but the whole ‘doing a bunch of challenges set by the bad guy’ is up there with ‘find the bad guy before he kills someone in ten minutes’, as far as Saturday morning clichés go, and I’m really not interested in that at all. Not trying to sound like I’m on a downer, but this episode did make me want the show to follow the king’s example and think like a mad genius! Because this was a bit too languid by Avatar status. At one point, a question is directed towards Aang: “What’s the point of tests if you don’t learn anything?” Well, at least we learnt about Earthbending. On to the next one! Some thoughts: Good Sokka/Katara moments were dry on the ground in King Of Omashu, but we did get this gem: “Rocky! Y’know, because of all of the rocks!”/”We’re gonna keep trying, but that is a good backup” That “refurbished chambers” bit was pretty funny too, I’ll say that. It was a bit weird seeing a pretty plain hare/rabbit in Avatar‘s world of wacky animal hybrids (Flopsy!) Did anybody find the visuals a bit different? The main characters looked a little skinnier or something. I may have been watching with crazy glasses. Read our recap and review of episode 4 here.
