Behold, a story that’s an automatic click for anyone who digs Avatar: The Last Airbender:
A:TLA wasn’t hurting for devotees by any stretch, but the emergence of the series on Netflix has certainly brought new eyes to the adventures of Aang and friends. Since its debut, the series has consistently hovered in the streamer’s top 10 (since the site doesn’t release viewership figures, we’ll just have to assume that means it’s doing well). That means loads of new people are just now catching on to the fact that as our heroes continue forth on their quest, they’re somehow wrecking a lot of cabbages, and they all seem to be sold by the same person (voiced by James Sie).
Enter Marissa Martinelli at Slate, who has worked up a thorough and charming oral history of the cabbage merchant through conversations with “key players from Avatar’s cast and crew,” including Sie, character designer Aaron Alexovich, voice director Andrea Romano, and several of the show’s writers, among others. The piece is worth reading in full, detailing the first appearance of the character (in the show’s fifth episode, “The King of Omashu”), his ultimate fate, and what it’s like to be recognized for a role where you say the same thing, over and over again:
Romano: James Sie would get fan mail for the cabbage merchant, which is just—you never know what the audience is going to react to, how they’re going to respond, what things they like and what they pick up on and what they relate to. But everybody seemed to love the cabbage merchant.
Sie: It’s become the biggest touch point that people know me for. I’ve done other, similar recurring characters, but this is the one where people almost swooned when they say, “You’re the cabbage merchant?!” There are music remixes of the cabbage merchant saying, “My cabbages!”
You’ve gotta love a good runner. Somewhere, the cabbage merchant and Beebo, the God of War are sitting around drinking Slushos together and smiling.
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15 Comments
Read this: An oral history…No, I won’t do that actually
Cool, is there anything else you aren’t doing today that you need to tell the world about?
I hope its not pooping. Because constipation can be a serious problem
So you hope it’s not not pooping?
He’s not not hoping it’s not not pooping.
And who’s playing first base?
Wow, what a special, interesting person you are.
And of course his apparently playing the guy’s grandson in Legend of Korra, which they very thankfully realized was the logical endpoint of the gag and didn’t try to make it another whole thing.
I still like the statue a lot. Brandishing his cabbage aloft in defiance of the moon-fish.
MY CABBAGES!!!
Now we need an oral history on Foamy Mouth Guy
Boy, howdy, do I get a lot of use out of that gif
It’s easy to feel sorry for the Cabbage Guy, but remember in his very first appearance he’s being denied permission to bring his cabbages into Omashu because they’re of poor quality and filled with slugs. So perhaps he needs to lift his game.
Those guards were of poor quality and were probably looking for a bribe. I refuse to believe the cabbage guy has poor quality cabbages.
I was at either Anime Expo or Dragon Con a few years ago where there was someone cosplaying as the cabbage merchant standing in a hallway, apparently taking a bit of a break and making some adjustments while he set his cabbage props (actual cabbages) on a table next to a water cooler.I’m both ashamed and proud to admit that when I spotted this while walking past, I knocked all his cabbages off the table and just kept on going.(He shouted out, in character, “my cabbages!” and everyone around us broke out laughing so I’m pretty sure he liked it.)As a random aside, Andrea Romano is a hero of mine and I’m not remotely in the industry. She is legend.