Avatar: The Last Airbender's Beloved Cabbage Merchant Almost Sold a Completely Different Vegetable

Relatively few shows leave indelible marks on entire generations, but it's easy to see that Avatar: The Last Airbender did exactly that. From the huge list of quotable lines like Zuko's "That's rough, buddy" to memes like Uncle Iroh's "It's time for you to look inward...," Avatarhas become deeply ingrained in the general pop culture library. However, the Cabbage Merchant in particular has won over many hearts, despite typically only ever repeating some variant of his singular memorable line: "My cabbages!"

In the most recent episode of Braving the Elements, the official podcast hosted by Janet Varney (the voice of Korra) and Dante Basco (the voice of Zuko), they welcomed guest star James Sie, who voiced the Cabbage Merchant in the original series. The podcast is generally structured around rewatching the Avatar series, with this most recent episode focused on Book 1, Episode 8 of The Legend of Korra, which saw a few scenes related to Cabbage Corp. This saw the group discussing the episode and Sie's role as both the Cabbage Merchant in Avatar and his son in Korra.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Writer Considered Other Vegetables for the Cabbage Merchant

Despite his general lack of screen time in the original series, the Cabbage Merchant actually has quite a bit of information out there about him, much of which comes from Avatar: The Last Airbender: My Cabbages! -- a children's book focused on the character. According to this book, the Cabbage Merchant's real name is Cai. He was born in Gaoling (the city where Team Avatar recruits Toph) to a line of cabbage farmers and eventually ends up with a wife and two children -- a son and a daughter.

Many fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender probably know at this point that the writers had no idea the Cabbage Merchant would end up becoming a fan-favorite character. He was originally planned to only be a one-off gag that appeared in a single episode, most likely "The King of Omashu" -- Episode 5 of Book 1 of the original series. The character then returned in Episode 9, "The Waterbending Scroll," and from there popped up occasionally as a quick gag.

However, while talking about the character on the podcast, Varney said, "I believe it was John O'Bryan who created the Cabbage Merchant. He was like 'I had that conversation with myself writing where I was like, 'Is an eggplant funnier? Is cabbage funny? Could have been anything. It could have been anything. It could have been any vegetable. We could all be going, 'My rutabagas!'" Sie chimed in by saying that it doesn't have the same ring to it that "My cabbages!" does, with Basco commenting that "we have to leave room to be surprised," as no one could have expected that such a simple character would have such a legacy, both among fans overall and in the sequel series with Cabbage Corp.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is available to stream on Netflix, while its sequel, The Legend of Korra, is on Paramount+.