Naga

"water"

- Your best friend is a, uh, polar bear dog...? Somehow that makes perfect sense.

Naga is a female polar bear dog that came into the possession of Avatar Korra as her companion, animal guide, and main mode 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 Korra out of perilous situations.

History
At some point, Naga met Korra and became her animal guide. Korra rides Naga like a horse, even into battle, where the animal proves to be quite agile, able to dodge moving cars at high speed and move quickly enough to keep up with them.

Naga later accompanied Korra when the Avatar escaped to Republic City, where the polar bear dog was seen catching fish from the pond in the city's park. As the guard came running, telling Korra not to fish, the Avatar escaped on Naga. She later helped Korra evade arrest by the Metalbending Police Force, but she and Korra were eventually captured and sent to Police headquarters.

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. Tahno and Korra began trash-talking, 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 out of the arena, the Avatar called Naga instead, who intimidated the Wolfbats' waterbender with a loud growl.

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.

Naga was awaiting the arrival of Mako, Bolin, and Asami to Air Temple Island, along with Korra and the three airbending children. The moment Pabu arrived on the island as well, 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 track, 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 alliance, they attempted to all sit on Naga 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 was sleeping in Korra's room, but was woken by her master to take her 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. After Korra's escape, Naga found her in the snow. She then proceeded to carry an exhausted Korra back to Republic City on her back, where the rest of Team Avatar found her.

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 threw off the Lieutenant as he attempted to attack them. Team Avatar then swam to the mainland, where they hid within the city's underbelly.

Appearances
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Book One: Air (气)
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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. The creators admitted to having been inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's movie 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.
 * The kangal, which is a breed of dog in the real-world, served as a partial reference for Naga.
 * Naga is the Sanskrit and Pāli word for the serpentine deities of Buddhist and Hindu mythology.
 * Nāga are commonly depicted as guardian spirits, much as Naga is Korra's animal guide.
 * Ironically, the supreme god of India, Avatar Vishnu, has a nāga guardian.
 * Naga is an anagram of Aang.
 * In Indonesian and Malay, naga means "dragon"; in Inuktitut, it means "no".
 * Naga is the first known polar bear dog to ever be tamed.
 * While both of the known animals that precede Naga in the position of guide to the Avatar were the animals that their people learned their bending art from, Naga is just a regular animal, though this had to be the case since the Water Tribes learned waterbending from the Moon and Ocean spirits.
 * The symbol on Naga's chest is the same symbol that Tonraq wears on his chest.
 * Naga is modeled after the creators' dogs, who are brothers.
 * Naga had shown discomfort to four people riding her; however in episode 10 she was shown to have the four members of Team Avatar riding on her back.