Pabu

"neutral"

- The only one I can trust anymore is Pabu! Pabu loves me.

Pabu is a mischievous fire ferret that belongs to Bolin. He is almost always getting into trouble, but his agility and sharp teeth make him nonetheless dependable in sticky situations. More than once he has been Bolin's partner in crime while playing practical jokes on Mako.

History
Bolin found Pabu scrounging for food on the streets of Republic City, rescued him, and made him his pet. Bolin taught Pabu how to perform circus tricks, and had him perform them at the base of Zuko's statue at Central City Station in order to raise the thirty thousand yuans needed for the Fire Ferrets to compete in the pro-bending championship tournament. To perform his trick, Bolin had dressed Pabu in a jacket and placed a fez on his head. The ferret needed to walk over "the ladder of peril", which was a thin plank elevated on two cups, upside down. After Bolin had dramatically announced the goal of the trick, Pabu had missed his start as he was still cleaning himself. After a gentle nudge from Bolin, the ferret walked over the plank on his front paws and somersaulted off the plank, to land while balancing on one front paw. However, this trick only made one yuan.



Later that night when Korra, Mako, and Naga were going to the Triple Threat Triad's headquarters to look for Bolin, they found Pabu along the way. Naga chased him up a lamppost, but backed off when Korra told her that "Pabu [was] a friend, not a snack." After the two animals sniffed each other's nose, Pabu perched himself on Mako's shoulders as they all continued the search for Bolin. However, the search became a chase when they found Bolin being kidnapped by Equalists. When Korra and Mako were disabled by a pair of chi blockers, Pabu joined Naga in scaring the enemies away from their human friends by screeching at them.

After that skirmish, they returned to searching the city again, heading toward Republic City Park. Pabu was comfortable enough with Naga to stand on her head to get a drink of water from the fountain, and later fall asleep on her back.

Before the Pro-bending Tournament, Mako and Bolin briefly discussed Korra as dating material while Bolin gave Pabu a bath, something the fire ferret was not particularly fond of. During the conversation, Bolin picked up Pabu and said, "You know what I'm talking about, Pabu; talkin' 'bout real love."

When Bolin later tried to eat his broken heart away at Narook's Seaweed Noodlery, Pabu accompanied him at the restaurant and helped himself to some noodles as well. They spent the entire night there, and when Mako came to pick Bolin up the following morning, Pabu lay with a distended stomach in an empty bowl of noodles. Bolin protested Mako's attempts at getting him out of the restaurant by mentioning that Pabu was now the only one he could trust. When the two brothers left the restaurant, Pabu followed them by sliding along on his stomach, as he was unable to walk due to the large amount of noodles he had eaten.

When the Fire Ferrets entered the arena to compete for the title in the tournament, Pabu was perched on Bolin's shoulder, dressed in a miniature uniform. Before the start of the match, he performed a short trick to introduce the team. He shortly walked on his front legs before jumping through an earth coin of which Bolin had removed the middle and balancing on one front paw again.



After the match, the Fire Ferrets found themselves tied to one of the support beams of the Pro-bending Arena by the Lieutenant. Pabu swam over to his friends and Bolin motioned him to bite the rope. As the fire ferret started gnawing at the ropes, Bolin proudly mentioned that Pabu was not just a "one trick poodle pony". Albeit distracted for a moment when the Equalists set off an explosion and blew up part of the arena, Pabu successfully cut all the ropes, allowing the team to escape and giving Korra the chance to fight back.

A few days later, it was decided that the Pro-bending Arena would be shut down, and Mako, Bolin, and Pabu found a new residence at the Sato estate. However, Korra was unaware of this and offered them a place to stay at Air Temple Island with her. After finding out that they were moving in with Asami, she was upset and began to leave. Before descending the stairs, Bolin grabbed Pabu and pretended that he was talking to Korra, telling her to visit the estate the following day. Korra laughed and said "Okay, Pabu."

The following day at the Sato estate, Pabu was seen swimming in the mansion's pool with Mako, Bolin, and Asami, and proceeded to do a cannonball off of a lion turtle statue. To show off how great living a life of luxury was to Korra, Bolin commanded one of the house butlers to dry him off, stating the butler should not forget to dry "Master Pabu" as well, who was perched on Bolin's head. After being quickly dried off, Pabu's fur fluffed up; however, the two quickly dove back into the pool again, much to the chagrin of the butler. Following the group's escape from the Sato estate in a police airship, Pabu rested on Bolin's shoulder.

Pabu moved with Bolin, Mako, and Asami to Air Temple Island. When he descended from Bolin's shoulder upon arrival at the island's docks to greet Naga, he was spotted by Meelo, and Jinora explained to her younger brother what species Pabu was. However, Ikki showed little interest in the intellectual exposition about Pabu, but rather screamed that he was cute and began chasing the mammal, much to Pabu's distaste, who hissed at her before running away. When Ikki had seized her chase and the group started moving toward the temple buildings, Pabu was now forced on the run by Naga, who was playfully chasing him.



That evening, when Team Avatar was searching for Korra, who had disappeared after witnessing Saikhan's conduction as the new Chief of Police, Pabu was the one who found her sitting in silence on a cliff overlooking Aang Memorial Island. Noticing how sad she was, he crawled onto her lap and started licking the tears of her face in an attempt to lift her spirits. When her friends arrived, Pabu crawled back onto Bolin's shoulders and let the rest of the comforting to be done by them.

Abilities
On a number of occasions, Pabu has been shown to be very nimble and acrobatic, such as when he performed circus tricks on the street to help the Fire Ferrets raise money, as well as at the Pro-bending Tournament final. He has also proven to have very sharp teeth capable of chewing through rope, as well as excellent swimming abilities.

Trivia

 * Like several other characters, Pabu was revealed on July 23, 2011 at San Diego Comic-Con.
 * In Korean, Pabu is a term used for endearment and it can also mean "silly you". In Tibetan, the name Pabu means "puffball".
 * Skoochy incorrectly called Pabu "some kind of monkey-rat", which was similar to how people often mistook Momo for being some other animal as well.
 * Pabu plays a similar role in the series as Momo did in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
 * Pabu, like nearly all the other animals in both series, is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
 * Just as Naga is loyal to Korra, Pabu is loyal to Bolin.