User:Jhenderson777/Appa and Momo

Appa and Momo are two fictional characters on the Nickelodeon animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Like most of the creatures depicted in the show they are a combination of two animals. In the show, they are pets of Avatar Aang and are the last of their kind. Dee Bradley Baker voices the two characters and all the other animals in the show. According to the creators, both of the creatures names are inspired by the first fruit Aang ever fed them with.

Creation and conception
In a flashback on "Appa's Lost Days", Appa's herd flies down to an Air Nomad Temple where Aang and other young Airbenders are waiting. Aang brings Appa an apple as a sign of friendship, which Appa accepts, sealing their bond as well as giving Appa his name, after the word "apple". In the episode "The Southern Air Temple", Aang finds him at the Southern Air Temple and then keeps him as a pet. After Momo eats a peach Aang decides to name him Momo, which is Japanese for "peach".

According to an interview with the artists involved with creating Avatar, found on the Avatar Season One Box Set, Appa's design was based on the Catbus from the movie My Neighbor Totoro as they found it difficult to create a six-legged mammal.

The show's creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, have described Appa's appearance as a cross between a buffalo and a manatee and Momo's appearance as a cross between Bat and a Lemur. Appa, like all flying bison, is covered in thick white fur with brown arrow markings that is remarked to be extremely itchy and is known to shed at the end of winter. The arrows on the flying bison's backs have inspired the tattoos that Airbenders receive as a sign of their mastery. In later episodes, he also wears a suit of leather and metal armor during battle that was crafted for him by Sokka.

As for Momo, the creators have stated that they originally intended for Momo to be the reincarnation of Monk Gyatso although they never revealed him as such. Avatar co-creator Bryan Konietzko also stated that Momo is his favorite character to draw and that his body language comes from the memories of his childhood cat.

History
Aang and Appa's first meeting is seen during a flashback sequence in Appa's Lost Days. It is tradition with Air Nomads that each young Airbender is given a sky bison calf once they come of age to be the Airbender's life-long animal companion. Almost immediately, the two became friends and would remain close, Appa being the one thing aside from his staff and robes from Aang's home that Aang took with him when he fled the Southern Air Temple.

Appa remained in suspended animation along with Aang for 100 years until their discovery by Katara and Sokka. Since then, Appa has been the group's main form of transportation in their quest, as well as occasionally assisting in battle. Appa was a consistent part of the group throughout the series until his capture by the Sandbenders in "The Library". However, Appa has been returned to group as of the Season 2 episode Lake Laogai.

Momo was introduced in "The Southern Air Temple" when Aang, Katara, and Sokka visited the Southern Air Temple. They saw a shadow in the distance and mistook it as the fire nation only to find out it was him. Aang and Sokka went after him but he ran away, the lemur then returned to bring food. Aang then invited him to the family and named him Momo after he ate a Moon Peach.

The seperation
Appa became lost for a short time when the group was traveling in the Earth Kingdom. He was kidnapped by Sandbenders in the middle of the vast Wan Wong desert, while Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Momo were trapped in a vast underground library. While being lost in the dessert, Momo was captured by a buzzard wasp until Aang rescued him refusing to lose another friend again. In the sub episode of "Tale of Momo", Momo misses Appa. After going outside he then finds himself being chased by pygmy pumas but he and the pygmy pumas are then captured by humans for food. Momo then escapes and helps the pygmy puma escape. The pygmy puma out of gratitude help trace Appa's footprints. And Momo lays on that footprint. The episode "Appa's Lost Days" reveals what happened to Appa. He was eventually sold to a Fire Nation circus where an animal tamer attempted to make him part of the show. Appa later escaped and journeyed throughout the Earth Kingdom until he encountered the Kyoshi Island Warriors, who attempted to heal the various wounds he had sustained in his travels and escort him back to Aang. Appa was forced to leave after an attack by Azula and her allies, ushered away by Suki while the warriors tried to delay the three Fire Nation girls. On his journey he encountered a sadhu named Guru Pathik at the Eastern Air Temple, to which he had fled. Being healed of his personal turmoil and directed to Aang by the sadhu, Appa flew to Ba Sing Se, where he was captured by Long Feng.

Appa was kept in a secret location at Lake Laogai until his rescue by Zuko, who was initially planning on utilizing him to capture the Avatar. Appa eventually returns to the main group in the last scenes of Lake Laogai.

Journey into the Fire Nation
Appa still accompanies Aang and his group even after they enter the Fire Nation. However, in order to make sure that he does not give away Aang's identity when flying, Aang covers Appa with clouds as a disguise while Momo has to hide himself in Aang's fire nation clothing.

At the Western Air Temple, Appa was among the first members of the group to accept Zuko as Aang's firebending teacher, as he is still grateful for Zuko freeing him in Ba Sing Se. He flew Aang and Zuko to the Sun Warrior Temple in order to learn the origin of firebending. He also flew Zuko and Katara to the Southern Raiders ship, so Katara could confront the murderer of her mother.

At the series finale, when Aang was feeling discouraged about killing the Fire Lord's life, Momo comforted him. Around that time, Aang began to sleepwalk his way to an island that happened to be a Lion Turtle, Momo followed him and stayed with him until Aang faced the Fire Lord. After the group found out Aang and Momo were missing, they tried to search for them with Appa. After the search for Aang failed, the group was forced to divide their efforts to prevent the Fire Nation from wiping out the Earth Kingdom. Appa flew Zuko and Katara to the Fire Nation capital where they fought and defeated Azula before she could assume leadership of the throne. Afterward, Appa and Momo and the rest of the Avatar gang is last seen outside of Iroh's tea shop in Ba Sing Se, listening to Iroh play a horn.

Characters overview
Appa and Momo have been a common member of the Avatar gang. Going through many situations together such as being lost in the swamp. They share a special friendship with each other and are often accompanying each other. Their relationship to each other is mainly a friendly one, although they have been depicted fighting for food with Aang resolving the situation in a fair way. They have also been depicted as communicating to each other in their own animal dialect as well. While Appa was lost from the gang, Momo shared grief of Appa's loss.

Both Momo and Appa have the ability to fly. Although Appa utilizes his Airbending for the purpose of flying while Momo glides with his wings. They have also shown to be a fairly adept swimmers as well.

Appa has been shown to be afraid of fire and trusting of those who have been kind to him. He can become quite temperamental towards anyone who he thinks is a threat to himself or his friends, especially Aang. Conversely, he has demonstrated an unrestrained affection towards those that he likes, often licking anyone he deems a friend. Appa also has a fear of going underground or in small tunnels, evidenced by his claustrophobic panic in "The Cave of Two Lovers". In several episodes, Momo has been revealed to have a dislike over certain birds.

Despite the tranquility related to his personality as well as his species, Appa has shown himself to be very capable of fighting when necessary. With his bending, Appa can create powerful gusts of air with just a flick of his tail and can gain advantage over his opponent by hovering. Being a bison, he is also naturally capable of brute strength and endurance. The best demonstration of this was in "Bato of the Water Tribe" where he endured multiple strikes from a Shirshu tongue before finally succumbing to the paralyzing venom, and "Appa's Lost Days" where he fought a rather large boarcupine, and was impaled by many painful quills. During larger battles, Appa serves as a mount for Aang. Appa and Aang are usually integral in large conflicts because their enemies rarely had effective counters to Appa's strength and maneuverability in the air. Only in the "Day of the Black Sun" was Appa's air supremacy truly challenged. During that episode, Sokka outfitted Appa with battle armor, serving to make Appa an even stronger force to be reckoned with. Momo doesn't seem to have any fighting skills but he has helped Team Avatar such as helping them escape by chewing on ropes and vines. Appa is also very intelligent and in many instances he is shown to be understanding a portion of human speech, although Momo seems to have quite a few amount of intelligence, he does have a hard time understanding human speech.

Appearances in other media
Both Momo and Appa have appeared in the live action movie, The Last Airbender, created by computer-generated imagery. with Dee Bradley Baker reprising his role of the sounds.