Naga

"water"

- My best friend. And a great tracker.

Naga is a female polar bear dog that belongs to Avatar Korra as her animal companion and main form of transportation. Despite her intimidating appearance, she is described as a "sweetheart" and is regarded as Korra's best friend. Undyingly loyal, she is very protective of Korra and has learned how to use her strength to help her out of perilous situations.

Early life
When she was just a puppy, Naga became lost in the tundra around the Southern Water Tribe, until she was found and eventually befriended by a young Korra. She subsequently became the Avatar's animal guide, best friend and main form of transportation. The animal proved to be quite agile, able to dodge moving cars at high speed and move quickly enough to keep up with them.

170 ASC
In 170 ASC, Naga accompanied Korra to Republic City, where the polar bear dog caught some fish from the pond in the city's park after she was denied food from a stand by a broke Korra. As a guard rushed toward Korra, telling her that fishing was not allowed, the Avatar escaped on Naga. She later helped Korra evade arrest by the Metalbending Police Force, but she and the Avatar were eventually captured and sent to the police headquarters. After Korra was cleared of the charges against her, Naga was returned to the Avatar by a police officer whom she licked.

While attempting to find Bolin, Naga was capable of sustaining a fast pace while chasing an Equalist convoy consisting of a truck and motorcycles. When Korra and Mako had their chi blocked and found themselves surrounded, Naga bit through her bindings, and she and Pabu scared the Equalists away, allowing the two to escape.

While Korra and Bolin were enjoying dinner at Narook's Seaweed Noodlery, they were approached by Tahno. He and Korra began trash-talking each other, and the pro-bender attempted to provoke the Avatar into a fight. Since the Fire Ferrets would be disqualified from the Pro-bending Tournament if she were to lay a hand on him outside of the arena, the Avatar called Naga instead, who intimidated the Wolfbats' waterbender with a loud roar.

When the Fire Ferrets found out that Amon had threatened the United Republic Council to shut down the Pro-bending Arena or face severe consequences, the team rode on Naga to City Hall so they could speak with the Council.

Days later, Naga awaited the arrival of Mako, Bolin, and Asami to Air Temple Island, along with Korra and the three airbending children. Pabu arrived on the island as well, and she was greeted by the ferret with a paw to her nose. However, their peaceful greeting was soon interrupted by an excited Ikki who wanted to catch Pabu. With Ikki on his trail, Pabu ran several times underneath Naga. Meanwhile, Meelo had perched himself upon her head and was pulling her ears and imploring her to fly like a flying bison. Naga let this all pass by her and she did not react to it in the slightest. When Ikki and Meelo had enough of the two animals, they started playing with each other, Naga happily chasing Pabu across the temple's courtyard.



Later that evening, when Mako, Bolin, Asami, and Korra had formed an official alliance, they all attempted to sit on Naga's back at the same time and use her as method of transportation to patrol Republic City. However, when Bolin jumped on her back, the foursome proved to be too heavy for her and Naga bent over, effectively throwing her riders off her back.

During the night, Naga slept in Korra's room, but was woken by her master who needed transportation to City Hall. Although concerned, Naga complied to Korra's order and waited outside.

While Korra was being held captive by Tarrlok, Naga tracked her to the area where she was and found her in the snow after her escape. The animal proceeded to carry an exhausted Korra back to Republic City on her back, where the rest of Team Avatar found them, guiding themselves on her howling.

When the Equalists attacked Republic City, Naga carried Team Avatar from Air Temple Island as they went into hiding to await the arrival of the United Forces. As they made their escape, Naga hit the Lieutenant as he attempted to attack them, knocking him down a long drop. The polar bear dog continued to carry the team by swimming to the mainland, where they hid within the city's underbelly.



When Mako and Korra split up from Asami, General Iroh, and Bolin underneath the city, Korra let Bolin's group take Naga because she would be handy in the mountains. When Bolin, Iroh, and Asami reached the Equalist biplane base, Naga and Pabu were told to wait in the nearby forest. After the group was captured and locked up, Naga ventured on the terrain and used her front paws and raw strength to knock down the jail cell bars.

At this point, the Equalist airplanes began to take off. Iroh went after the airplanes while Bolin set off for the runways, destroying them with earthbending. As he was tearing apart the runways, several mecha tanks came and shot rope claws at him. Naga once again came to the rescue, grabbing the ropes and using them to swing the mecha tanks around, destroying them. At that point, another mecha tank battle was also brewing between Asami and her father. Naga carried Bolin to the hangar just in time for the earthbender to save Asami.

Naga journeyed with Korra and her friends back to the South Pole, where Katara unsuccessfully tried to restore her ability to bend water, earth, and fire. Korra subsequently rode Naga toward a cliffside, where she was contacted by Avatar Aang's spirit, who restored her bending. Naga was later present when Korra used energybending to restore Lin Beifong's earthbending and metalbending.

171 ASC


After spending six more months in Republic City, Naga and Korra returned to the Southern Water Tribe again. At night, Naga awoke as she heard something outside of Korra's hut, rousing the Avatar as well who was sleeping against the polar bear dog. Naga ran outside where she started howling, much to Korra's annoyance who tried to silence her. However, the animal had sensed the presence of a dark spirit, which subsequently attacked Korra.

When Korra later journeyed across the frozen tundra toward the South Pole, Naga served as her loyal mount. During their journey, the polar bear dog sensed that they were being followed by several dark spirits, and she alerted the humans of the party to their presence by growling in the direction of the entities. As several spirits attacked them the next day, Naga joined in the fight, though with little success.



Several days later, Naga and Korra gave chase of Judge Hotah. By crashing into his Satomobile, Naga caused it to spin out of control, effectively stopping the judge's escape. At Korra's order, she ripped off the door of the car, and threateningly growled at the judge in order to have him comply to Korra's requests. Korra continued to threaten the judge, and Naga opened her jaws to allow Korra to place the judge's head in her mouth. Korra continued to threaten the man until she had the information she desired, and rode Naga back to her friends.

Naga accompanied Korra back to Republic City, where Korra went to persuade President Raiko to aid the South in the Civil war. During the peace march, Naga and Korra rode at the front of the group, nearing Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center. After Korra's attempts to gain aid from Raiko failed, she left Naga in Bolin's care as the Avatar traveled to the Fire Nation in hopes of gaining Iroh's mother's approval.



Under Bolin's care, Naga was dyed with black spots to pass as an arctic panda, one of Nuktuk's loyal friends with the ability to convey understandable thought to her master, in Varrick's propaganda mover, The Adventures of Nuktuk: Hero of the South.

When Harmonic Convergence drew near, Naga accompanied her master back home to the Southern Water Tribe, where she was left at the Southern Water Tribe compound while Korra and her friends went on a mission to close the spirit portals. However, she ran off to track them and found Bumi, who had gotten separated. She accompanied him to the South Pole, were she overpowered Desna and Eska, helping Bumi free the others. Naga was subsequently taken back to the compound by Asami on Oogi, while the others ventured into the Spirit World.

Abilities


Naga is a fast and strong polar bear dog. She is an adept fighter and has saved the members of Team Avatar on many occasions. Several times, Naga has displayed powerful abilities, such as when she used her fierce strength to destroy the bars of the jail cell at the Equalist biplane base, or when she used her strength to pull three mecha tanks away from Bolin and destroy them. She has displayed her speed many times as well, most notably when she was chasing after the Equalists that took Bolin, and when she was running with Korra outside the Southern Water Tribe compound. Naga also appears to have an exceptional sense of smell, being able to track Korra after Tarrlok had kidnapped her and taken her to the mountains. Naga's adept senses also allow her to sense any nearby danger, as she was able to detect the presence of a dark spirit before it even manifested.

Appearances
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Book Two: Spirits (神靈)
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Trivia

 * Korra and Naga greatly resemble San from Princess Mononoke and her wolf foster-brothers and foster-mother, the wolf goddess Moro, in both posture and physical traits, especially when the human character rides the mythical creature. Both human characters possess powers beyond ordinary humans. The creators admitted to having been inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's movies when creating Avatar: The Last Airbender.
 * Naga was based off the original early concepts of an anthropomorphic polar bear dog traveling with Aang that eventually evolved into Appa.
 * Coincidentally enough, Naga seems to serve a similar role in the Legend of Korra that Appa did in The Last Airbender.
 * The kangal, which is a breed of dog in the real-world, served as a partial basis for Naga.
 * Naga also somewhat resembles the Great Pyrenees, a large dog which usually has pure white fur.
 * Naga is the Sanskrit and Pāli word for the serpentine deities of Buddhist and Hindu mythology.
 * Nāga are commonly depicted as guardian spirits, much like how Naga is Korra's animal guide.
 * Vishnu, the great preserver god of Hinduism and manifestation of ten different avatars, has a nāga guardian.
 * Naga is an anagram of Aang.
 * Naga is the first known polar bear dog to ever be tamed.
 * The symbol on Naga's chest is the same symbol that Tonraq wears on his chest.
 * Naga is modeled after the creators' dogs, Truman and Gunther, who are brothers.
 * A chibi version of Naga can be seen in Republic City Run and in Super Mini Puzzle Heroes Multiplayer.