InAvatar: The Last Airbender, bending abilities are supposed to be used for good. It is the Avatar’s responsibility to ensure that all humans who are gifted with a connection to bending and the spirit world are set a good example of how to do so wisely. Nonetheless, many benders turn their skills into terrible weapons that wreak havoc on unsuspecting people because power has been placed in the wrong hands. This is a lesson that can be easily applied to Jennamite, one of the most interesting and diverse weapons in the earth kingdom of Omashu. It could be either a fun and beautiful commodity or a deadly and awful weapon if wielded by the wrong person.
Jennamite, which was originally so named in honor of one of Nickelodeon’s executives Jenna Luttrell, is first experienced by Aang and his friends Katara and Sokka in the kingdom of Omashu, when they are passing through the city on their way to find Aang a water-bending master to teach him his first element. When they enter the kingdom, they are trapped inside by the king, who quickly realizes that Aang is an air-bender, and the avatar. The king, Bumi, is an old friend of Aangs, but since it has been 100 years since they saw one another, the recognition doesn’t go both ways, and Bumi seizes the chance to play some of his favorite pranks on his old friend. Bumi is an eccentric character,Utkarsh Ambudkar spent 6 hours in makeupfor the role in the upcoming live-action series.
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He sets Aang a series of 3 trials, each involving a task that teaches the avatar the importance of thinking outside the box and learning to approach battles, dilemmas, and even people, from new and interesting ways. This is a very important lesson that Aang, as someone who is very spiritual and young, which can sometimes make him naive and too trusting, must learn in order to survive long enough to master all of the elements and fulfill his destiny of defeating the Fire Lord,one of the franchises best villains.
However, Aang, who wasraised as an Air Nomadand taught to avoid conflict, doesn’t want to participate in the king’s games, and demands to leave, so Bumi gives him a little encouragement by taking Katara and Sokka hostage. This is when he uses Jennamite, also known as the ‘Creeping Crystal’ to persuade Aang to complete the tasks set. Both Katara and Sokka are forced to wear a Jennamite ring, which at first seems harmless, but very quickly turns into a battle of life and death - if Bumi weren’t actually a friend in disguise.
Jennamite is a rare crystal found within Omashu, and it has several functions, both as a weapon, but also as a piece of technology. In terms of its unique properties, Jennamite comes in many different colors, some of which are bioluminescent and are used throughout the kingdom as light sources to illuminate the dark tunnels beneath the earth. King Bumi’s favorite kind of Jennamite is yellow, because it glows the strongest, and is used to light his chambers.
The other, more sinister use of dynamite, is as a weapon that slowly suffocates its victims. It has earned the name Creeping Crystal because it begins growing as soon as it comes into contact with warm bio-matter. It grows at an alarming rate, and continues to do so until it has entirely encased its victims and suffocated them from the inside. By the time Aanga has completed the first trial, what started out as a small ring of the rare substance has already entirely engulfed Katara and Sokka’s entire arm and shoulder. And by the end of the second trial, all that is left uncovered is their heads.
Luckily for Aang and his friends, Bumi has long been an ally, and is doing it not to harm anyone, but to help the Avatar, and to test him in seeing the world in different ways. Subsequently, at the end of the episode, Bumi also reveals the final use for Jennamite - as a delicious snack! It’s actually a form of rock candy that can be eaten and enjoyed throughout the kingdom. In this sense, Katara and Sokka were never really in danger, and Bumi never would have let anything bad happen to them, but it just goes to show how something like Jennamite, or like bending, or like anything else in the world that has potential for both greatness but also terrible evil, can be wielded very differently when put in the wrong hands.
This is another valuable lesson for Aang to learn, and one that becomes even more prominent inLegend of Korra(which wasn’t as good)when anarchists takethe energy-bendingthat Aang created to defeat the Fire Lord Ozai, and begin using it to play god and strip people of their elemental abilities.
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