Momo

"air"

- Someone's missing from your group, someone very important... Where's Momo?

Momo was a winged lemur and a loyal companion of Aang and his team. He was the only winged lemur known to have survived the Air Nomad Genocide, where he appertained to the Southern Air Temple afterward. However, the fact that his species was recognized by some characters throughout the series gave an indication that Momo may still have living brethren around the world, though, this has not been confirmed.

Momo was an intelligent creature; however, he was either incapable or selective of understanding human speech. He was a glutton for any available fruit. Momo's behavior was more associated with feline behavior than of real life lemurs. His wings appeared to retract within the fur of his arms and he appeared to have four fingers and two additional ones within the wing membrane that could be seen when he extended his wings. His fur was mostly white with some select black stripes and a brownish-black face which has two proportionately large green eyes.

Discovery


In late 99 ASC, Momo was thought to have begun living in the ruins of the Southern Air Temple, either alone or with a family of lemurs. While visiting the temple that year, Avatar Aang, Katara and Sokka heard a strange noise from the doorway of the sanctuary of the temple, indicating that someone had entered the room.

Team Avatar, thinking that it was a firebender, hid behind two Avatar statues until they saw that the intruder was only a lemur. The young twelve year-old took interest in him and longed to adopt him as his new pet. Desperately hungry, Sokka at first wished to eat their newly discovered companion for dinner. A chase ensued between Sokka and Aang, which ultimately led Aang to discover Monk Gyatso's corpse. Afterwards, the lemur provided Sokka with a quantity of food. Aang decided to keep the lemur as a pet and named him "Momo" after he stole a moon peach from Sokka. From this moment on, Momo remained a constant addition to their family, accompanying the team on their journeys throughout the world.

Journey to the North
Momo and Team Avatar next went to Omashu where they were "captured" by King Bumi. Aang decided to have Momo slip though an air vent to reach Appa for help. Unfortunately, Momo had eaten a large amount of fruit and was too big to fit. One day, Team Avatar developed a plan with the objective of Fire Nation guards arresting Katara, so she could meet with Haru. They made it appear to the guards that she was an earthbender; Aang had to raise a rock with airbending through ventilation pipes. At first the guards thought that the earthbender was Momo, because of his raising his arms to lick them clean, but Sokka corrected them saying that the bender was Katara. During the events on the winter solstice, Momo tricked the Fire Sages into opening the Fire Temple Sanctuary by crawling through the pipes and moving around, casting a shadow. He later helped out by attacking the Great Sage, creating a distraction for Aang to enter the Sanctuary. He was seen with Appa when the bison rescued the group from the falling temple, and was seen wearing the headdress of the Great Sage. Afterward, Momo had a brief altercation with the pirate captain's reptile bird for a waterbending scroll, but tied it to a post using a flag. Before the fight with the bird, Momo had saved Katara by cutting the ropes that had her tied up.

Later, when Katara and Sokka were sick, Aang went to search for a medicine that could cure them of their illness. Momo stayed, accompanying them. While waiting for Aang to return, Katara requested that Momo find some water, but he did not understand her words. So, the lemur took all sorts of objects, without ever getting to what Katara wanted. Throughout the rest of the group's journey with the team, he accompanied them on their adventures without contributing with major or significant participation.

Siege of the North
During the Siege of the North, Momo stayed out of the fight, though he accompanied Katara and Princess Yue. When Zuko captured Aang's body after he went to the Spirit World for help, Momo stayed at the Spirit Oasis while the rest of the team went to search the polar ice cap surrounding the city. After Aang was rescued, Momo attacked Admiral Zhao in the midst of a speech, though this did not stop Zhao from killing Tui. After Tui was killed, Aang went into the Avatar State and merged with an enraged La to repel the attacking Fire Nation fleet as Momo watched in awe with the others. Once the siege ended, Momo and the rest of Team Avatar shared a group hug at the Chief Temple.

Traveling through the Earth Kingdom


When the team ventured to the city of Omashu in the Earth Kingdom, Momo split from the group in search of food, because Team Avatar was too busy causing a pentapox outbreak. He, then, got in a scuffle with the New Ozai Governor's son, Tom-Tom, who was intrigued by Momo's tail and followed him out of the city. When flying over a swamp, Momo and Appa became separated from the rest of the team. While wandering though the swamp, they were attacked by a Foggy Swamp Tribe hunting party. Momo was captured in the chase by Tho, but later released when Huu and Team Avatar intervened.

During Appa's disappearance in Si Wong Desert, Momo was captured by a buzzard wasp, but was rescued quickly by Aang, who viciously knocked the creature out of the sky with an air whip, bitterly refusing to lose another friend.

In Ba Sing Se


After crossing the Serpent's Pass with Suki, Aang and Momo flew towards the Outer Wall of the Earth Kingdom capital, Ba Sing Se. Aang reached the wall and flew to the top, only to be dismayed to find a huge mechanical drill with the Fire Nation emblem upon it. During the Battle of the Drill, when Aang fell to one side of the drill and Azula fell to the other flank, Momo grabbed and saved Aang, while Azula managed to stop her fall.

One night, he continued looking for Appa, and in the process was attacked by a pack of three pygmy pumas. He and the pumas were captured and taken to a local slaughterhouse. However, Momo was able to remove the pin of his cage and the felines' cage as well. After the escape, the pygmy pumas took him to Appa's footprint.

When Aang met with Guru Pathik, Momo stayed behind in Ba Sing Se with Katara and later joined Sokka and Toph when they attempted to warn the Earth King of the coup. There, he was captured by the Dai Li, Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula. After Team Avatar was defeated by Azula, they left the city, traveling with Earth King Kuei and Bosco.

Roaming the Fire Nation
When Aang joined a Fire Nation school, Momo accompanied him by hiding under his uniform. During many adventures of Team Avatar, Momo did not participate until Sokka bought a messenger hawk, Hawky. At first, he continually got into fights with the hawk, but then Appa calmed them down.

Aang was very nervous because the invasion was in only four days away and was uncertain about confronting Fire Lord Ozai. Due to this he began over-training, leading to hallucinations and nightmares. In one of Aang's visions Momo spoke to him before he and Appa broke out in a fierce argument. Later, Momo wore a kimono, entering into a samurai-style duel with Appa while koala sheep cheered them on.

Final battles


Before the arrival of Sozin's Comet, Momo followed Aang while he sleepwalked to the giant lion turtle. Meanwhile, when the rest of Team Avatar met with the masters of the Order of the White Lotus, Bumi stated that an important member was missing, then asked where Momo was. When Aang awoke, he was confused as to his whereabouts and began speaking with Momo, who only answered by his characteristic growls.

Preceding the final battle in Wulong Forest, Aang warned Momo that he had to fly to somewhere safe. Momo returned once Ozai was defeated by the Avatar. After the final battles, Team Avatar along with Iroh and Mai reunited in the Jasmine Dragon; Aang was seen there playing with Momo using airbending to keep an object out of his reach.

After the War
Not much of Momo's life after the War is known, however, Aang later found another species of his kind: the ring-tailed winged lemur.

Personality
Momo was typical of his species; curious and intelligent, with a touch of mischievousness. He was an asset to the team with his friendly and playful ways, which helped to feed Sokka's humor as the straight man; this brought much needed levity to the group from time to time. Although rare between different animal species, Appa and Momo appeared to have a special bond, which may be due partly to linguistic understanding. Momo was also adept in many situations, such as with the pygmy pumas that were chasing him for food only to find themselves on the menu. Momo provided their escape and at the same time made new friends. These traits all go towards making Momo a cute and adorable creature within the team, as well as to others he met throughout his travels.

Abilities
Momo used his wings for gliding and flying. He could also swim short distances underwater whilst holding his breath. He didn't prove any fighting skill, except flipping out on a target and bouncing on enemy heads, due to his size and capabilities as an animal, but he has helped Team Avatar numerous times on various occasions. Momo also showed some type of intelligence, as he helped Katara when she was trapped, and helped Sokka with fighting Fire Nation soldiers. Momo showed on various occasions that he understood human speech but only to a limit; for instance, he did not understand Katara when she told him to go get water when she and Sokka were sick. Momo also had a lot of physical strength, as he could sustain a person in the air who was approximately Aang's weight or possibly more.

Appearances
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The Promise Trilogy
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 * The Promise Part 1

Trivia



 * Momo played a much minor role in film adaptation than in the series, only appearing a few times.
 * Aang named Momo for the Japanese word for peach, the fruit which Momo seized from Sokka shortly before being named. In fact, Momotaro—"Peach Boy"—is a well-known boy hero from Japanese mythology. The creators later revealed that they had actually named him that way because it apparently just seemed to fit, as he was originally supposed to be a robot called Momo 3. He had even been already drawn eating a peach only for them to later find out that momo was peach in Japanese.
 * The name Momo is also a common name for pets and such in Japan, much like Max in England or Lucky in America. Momo is also short for the Japanese dwarf flying squirrel, Momonga (モモンガ). A character from the anime Samurai Champloo has one named thus. In "Tales of Ba Sing Se", Momo was written as 摸摸 (Mō mō) which means touch imitate in Chinese. It also can be seen as the phase in Chinese where a name is repeated twice to show affection or cuteness, as in Tom-Tom.
 * It was revealed in "Avatar Extras" that Momo was originally supposed to be the reincarnated spirit of Monk Gyatso, though the creators never expanded on this part of the plot.
 * Momo and Appa were good friends, although they were known to fight over food.
 * Avatar co-creator Bryan Konietzko has admitted that Momo is his favorite character to draw, and that a lot of his poses, mannerisms and overall body language stem from the memories of his childhood cat, Buddy. This explains why Momo is so reminiscent of a typical housecat.
 * In the commentary for "The Western Air Temple", one of the ideas Mike and Bryan had was for the team to find a whole group of flying lemurs.
 * Momo was one of the few characters in the series to have his own theme song.
 * According to "Avatar Extras" for "The Southern Air Temple", flying lemurs were trained to bring Air Nomads their gliders. Momo was originally going to be able to do this with Aang raising the question of who trained Momo.
 * Momo was the first non-founding member of Team Avatar.
 * The gang found Momo in the abandoned Southern Air Temple. Since he was not preserved along with Aang, he either has a family somewhere in the temple, or winged lemurs have extremely long life-spans.
 * Tho commented he had seen a lemur before in a traveling show, so Momo might not be the only winged lemur left. Also the pirate captain recognized Momo as a lemur, pointing towards other winged lemur's existence. More proof is how Professor Zei dismissed Momo, while being very interested in Appa and Aang, who were living relics. If flying lemurs were almost extinct except for Momo, he probably would have been more interested.
 * Momo was also the name of the younger sister of Mako Iwamatsu, the voice actor of Iroh in seasons one and two.