‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Season 2 pays homage to an icon: Bosco the bear

Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender blends a Fire Nation’s worth of episodes into 10, which means some characters from the animated series don’t make the cut.

Sure, certain cabbage merchants are given the respect they deserve. However, in Season 2, one Earth Kingdom icon is missing: Bosco.

Earth King Kuei’s pet bear, mammalian royalty of Ba Sing Se, is not present in the Netflix series, despite being the second most important being in the Earth Kingdom during the animated show. Bosco is so highly ranked he’s essentially the king’s best friend, and had an entire birthday party thrown for him in the palace, in Season 2, episode 14, “City of Walls and Secrets.”

“Quiet, you don’t know what I had to do to get seats this near the bear,” says one party attendee, as VIP Bosco absolutely rips into the banquet in front of him.

In fact, Bosco’s so influential in Earth Kingdom court politics, in Season 2, episode 18, “The Earth King,” Team Avatar is allowed to plead their case to the monarch simply because his bear liked Aang’s waterbending tricks at the party. They’re in cuffs in the throne room and Bosco licks Aang’s face, so the Earth King hears them out and changes his mind. That’s power.

During the coup of Ba Sing Se, in Season 2, episode 20, “The Crossroads of Destiny,” Sokka, Toph, and the Earth King breakd into the throne room to rescue Bosco from the usurper Azula and her friends Mai and Ty Lee. “Just take the bear,” is Mai’s iconic deadpan response. After they’ve escaped, Bosco and the Earth King hit the road together in the first episode of Season 3, with the bear removing his little court hat. We don’t talk about what happened to Bosco after the king’s death — in sequel series The Legend of Korra, we learn he was eaten by the king’s daughter, the Earth Queen. Horrifying. (She gets her comeuppance, don’t worry.)

Where is Bosco the bear in the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender?

In the Netflix live action series, Bosco is absent, not snoozing beside the Earth King where we expected him to be. However, the bear is honoured with a colossal portrait hanging in the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace. In Season 2, episode 6, “The Parable of Two Dragons,” Aang (Gordon Cormier), Katara (Kiawentiio), Sokka (Ian Ousley), and Toph (Miya Cech) infiltrate the palace to speak to Earth King Kuei (Justin Chien) and General Sung (Lourdes Faberes).

As they’re walking through the palace, Sokka notices an enormous painting on one of the walls, an undeniable portrait of Bosco. Commissioned on the scale of a history painting, the piece suggests the bear has been an influential court noble at one point (the painting takes up the entire wall). A masterpiece of a masterpiece, and a fitting Easter egg for Avatar: The Last Airbender fans.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.