Pabu

"URN"

- See? Pabu's not just a one trick poodle pony.

Pabu is a mischievous, male fire ferret who belongs to Bolin. Although he often gets into trouble, his agility and sharp teeth make him dependable in sticky situations. He has been Bolin's partner in crime on more than one occasion. He is also known to play practical jokes on Mako.

History
When Bolin was fourteen, he rescued Pabu from a nasty pet store and made him his pet. He 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 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. When Bolin dramatically announced the goal of the trick, Pabu missed his cue 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 earned Bolin one yuan.



Later that night, while Korra, Mako, and Naga were heading 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 noses, 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 fell asleep on her back.

Before the Pro-bending Tournament, Pabu was getting a bath from Bolin, something the ferret did not particularly appreciate. When Mako dismissed Bolin's requests for advice to date Korra, Bolin turned to the ferret, stating that Pabu knew that he was talking about "real love".

After Bolin witnessed Mako and Korra kiss, Pabu accompanied him to Narook's Seaweed Noodlery as the earthbender attempted to soothe his feelings of hurt 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 resisted Mako's attempts to coax him to leave 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.



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 chew through 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, asking her to visit the estate the following day. Korra laughed and said "Okay, Pabu."

The following day at the Sato estate, Pabu was swimming in the Sato's 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.

After Hiroshi Sato's revelation as an Equalist, 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 ceased 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 appointment 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 off her face in an attempt to lift her spirits. When her friends arrived, Pabu crawled back onto Bolin's shoulders and let Team Avatar do the rest of the comforting.

Pabu remained at Air Temple Island while Team Avatar patrolled the city, as well as while Bolin, Mako, and Asami were in jail, and Korra was kidnapped. Bolin later had Pabu on his shoulder when the Equalists attacked the island, and went with Bolin and the others when they had to go into hiding.

Pabu and the rest of Team Avatar would hide out with Gommu and the rest of the city's homeless in a network of underground tunnels while awaiting the arrival of the United Forces. When Asami was unable to eat the street gruel that was served to the group and put it to the side, the fire ferret took full advantage of the free meal, lapping it up. After General Iroh was rescued following an Equalist ambush, Pabu would accompany Asami, Bolin, the general, and Naga into the mountains to put Hiroshi's secret airfield out of commission.

Upon reaching the outskirts of the airfield, Bolin told Naga and Pabu to stay put while he and the others went ahead. The pair would later come to the trio's rescue after they were knocked unconscious by the invisible electric fence surrounding the field and tied up in a cell on the base. Naga managed to sneak into the holding area using her strength to break the cell open while Pabu freed the three by gnawing at their ropes, allowing them to complete the mission.

Abilities
On a number of occasions, Pabu has demonstrated himself 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.

Appearances
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Book One: Air (气)
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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".
 * Bryan Konietzko mentioned on his tumblr that Pabu was inspired by Futa, the "seemingly-bipedal red panda who had captured the adoration of the Japanese public" years ago during the original series' production.
 * Pabu plays a similar role in the series as Momo did in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
 * Similarly to how Momo first appeared in the third episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pabu made his first appearance in the third episode of The Legend of Korra.
 * Skoochy incorrectly called Pabu "some kind of monkey-rat", which was similar to how people often mistook Momo for being some other animal.
 * Pabu, like nearly all the other animals in both series, is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
 * Momo and Pabu both gain stomach weight in the fifth episode of their respective series. Momo ate the food in King Bumi's jail chamber and Pabu ate noodles with Bolin.
 * Naga considered Pabu as a snack when they first met, just as Sokka planned to eat Momo during their first encounter.