Satoru

Satoru was an engineer who worked at the Earthen Fire Refinery. He was the nephew of the refinery's co-owner Loban, and as such was put in charge whenever his uncle had to leave the business.

History
One day in 102 AG, Satoru was put in charge of the refinery by his uncle, Loban, while he met with his business partner. Satoru met Avatar Aang, his friends, and three members of the Air Acolytes after they had trespassed on factory grounds and Aang had defeated the guards. He warmly welcomed the team, excited to meet them. When he noticed Toph Beifong, Satoru grew even more excited, as he had admired her for a long time, and promptly invited her for a tour of the refinery. He allowed the rest of the team to accompany them as friends of Toph.

During the tour, Satoru explained to Toph how Loban discovered that the land upon which the refinery was built was rich in natural resources, but could not be developed until after the end of the Hundred Year War with the help of an Earth Kingdom business partner. Not noticing Aang's attempts to talk to him about the land's past status, Satoru led the group to a production room where earthbenders, firebenders, and waterbenders worked to mine rocks for jewels, proudly stating that the factory was the future, since people from all around the world came there to work together. To emphasize that point, he showed the team a newer production line where the benders had been replaced by machines, as to facilitate even nonbenders to work in the refinery. Satoru had to cut his guided tour short after Sokka broke one of the refinery's forklifts as it would take the engineer some time to repair it. However, much to his amazement, Toph was able to sense the broken parts and repair them easily through the use of metalbending. After learning that she ran a metalbending school, Satoru asked if she would be willing to visit the refinery from time to time with her students in order to help out with the machines, something to which Toph quickly agreed.

When Aang accused the refinery of being the cause of the nearby river's pollution, Satoru refuted the statement, stating that Loban believed it to be a natural phenomenon. The group did not believe him, though Toph vouched for him, as she could not detect Satoru to be lying. When an argument arose between Toph and Aang, the ground began to rumble violently, causing Satoru to believe that they were responsible for it. After a second quake caused mined crystals to spill out, Satoru urged the team to leave, fearful that his uncle would be angry over what had happened. Before the team could heed his request, they discovered a machine had gone haywire, trapping a worker. Satoru told Toph and Aang to unplug the machine, though they ended up destroying the machine instead. At that moment, Loban returned and blamed Satoru for all the damage to his factory, claiming him to be too "scatterbrained" to shoulder any real responsibility.

Trivia

 * Satoru means "to know" or "understand" in Japanese, which ties in neatly with Satoru's profession as an engineer.