Avatar:Buddy
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📎 View original · 📅 Imported: 2025-12-22
"I know he might just seem like some stray animal to you, but Buddy is so much more than that. He was the only friend I had when I was younger. You wouldn't believe how loyal a cat bat can be."
Buddy was a cat bat who lived on Karr Lok Island in the later era of Szeto. He became a good friend of Aera. His love of bright lights moving in unpredictable patterns helped Aera and the rest of Team Matchsticks train to be better firebenders.
History
Buddy helped comfort Aera when Team Undefeated was badly bullying her over her disability. Tearan, Moriko, Akito, and Botan followed Aera home and started throwing insults at her, but Buddy swooped in and scared off the aggressors. Buddy almost got himself hurt in the incident, and Aera was deeply grateful that he had stepped in to protect her.[1]
Meeting Buddy also helped Aera improve her firebending. Aera had been unable to master the traditional firebending forms because of her limb difference, and was only able to produce a small fire ribbon. Buddy grew very excited once he saw the ribbon, and started chasing after it. Aera laughed after seeing him react to her fire ribbon. She stopped being self-conscious, and focused on playing with him every evening. Over time, she found herself being able to make the ribbon longer and longer, and make it dance more and more.[1] Buddy was Aera's only friend before she met Adaki, Jiyung, and Sujun.[2]
By accident, Aera mentioned her "other friend" to the rest of Team Adaki after they had started training for the Regional Bending Tournament. The other firebenders asked her more about the friend, and asked to meet him. Aera started to create a fire ribbon as a signal to lead Buddy to the beach, and he started to appear after a few minutes. However, Aera had not explained that her friend was not human. Sujun and Adaki started to grow scared once they saw Buddy approach, and Jiyung tried to warn Aera that the cat bat might hurt her. Aera quickly spun around and stopped bending, and Buddy flew away.[2]
A while later, Team Adaki started to discuss ribbon firebending, and how it might be used to help win them the tournament by cutting loose the delicate lantern hanging above the stage. Aera explained to Sifu Chuan how she had tried to introduce Buddy to her friends, but was hurt by their reactions.[1][3] Chuan encouraged Aera to give her friends a chance to change their minds about Buddy. She came back to the class a few moments later with Buddy perched on her shoulder.[3] Aera explained how Buddy had defended her from bullies and helped her improve her bending, and her friends started to come around to her side, some more reluctantly so than others.[1]
Aera also explained about he had helped her refine her fire ribbon technique, and performed a demonstration for her friends. Chuan noticed that Buddy only reacted when the fire moved in an unpredictable way. She told her students that they could learn from his reactions, as they would do well in the tournament by confusing their opponents. Jiyung first tried to get Buddy's attention, but her fire ribbon moved too predictably, and Buddy gave up playing with her. Adaki tried to do the same, but his fire ribbon failed to burn bright enough. Finally, Sujun went ahead, but their ribbon moved too slowly, and they were standing at the opposite side of the room from Buddy.
Aera gave feedback to her friends, and showed the rest of the team how to properly hold Buddy's attention with a bright, fast-moving, unpredictable fire ribbon. On her second attempt, Jiyung corrected her mistake, and Buddy went after her flame enthusiastically. Adaki focused on his breathing to make his ribbon brighter, and Buddy launched himself in the air after it.[1]
Chuan encouraged Adaki to try to cut the lantern rope with his bending. However, when he did so, the rope remained trailing behind the lantern, and was slowly being eaten by embers. Aera tried to use a fire spin to launch herself to catch the lantern, but the bright flames also caught Buddy's attention. As he headed straight towards Aera's flames, Sujun leaped forward and batted away the fire, saving Buddy. Buddy started to wind down around Sujun's legs and purr, to the shock of the young firebender, who was still a little uncomfortable around cat bats. Chuan was glad that the team had made progress, but started crying, revealing to the group that she was severely allergic to cat bats.[1]
Later, Team Adaki used the skills they had learned from playing with Buddy to win the Regional Bending Tournament.[4]