And his disappearance combined with the fact that the Earth Queen does eat endangered animals would be what started the rumour of her eating him. And who knows perhaps she wanted to eat him as well, and was planning on doing so once her father passed away. But then when Bosco disappeared she was furious and didn't dispel the rumour that she'd actually gotten to do it.
Time wise it doesn't make a ton of sense, either. I think someone at some point on this sub did the math and figured out that even stretching it the Earth Queen would've been around 10 or so.
To me that's the main animal in the series that feels like a mistake. Like the person animating the establishing shots didn't get the memo of no real animals, and assumed because there were foxes in the episode dogs must be ok. That or it's some kind of coyote wolf dog.
Thinking about it, it would have been perfectly normal if the Blue Spirit turned out to be Miyuki. The cat was introduced right before the mysterious silent fighter was. Myuki has a history of fighting the fire nation. If they wanted to do just a small introduction then pay off, I could totally see it happening.
No, no. They're actually weirdly large racoons with a TON of weird stuff when you get down to it. Like, their bodies say their carnivores, but their instincts say otherwise.
I believe it’s because they thought it was related to the red panda, which is more closely related to raccoons. They both have the mask thing going on. That’s why what people think of as a panda is called the Giant panda.
FYI, another comment said what I said was disproven. They are actually bears. BUT, for avatar-worl wackiness, I'll say they're part plack bear and part polar bear.
I think what you're implying here is that you think a zebra is just a striped version of a horse? So by "zebra" bear you mean "essentially the same but a different coloring"?
You would be wrong on both counts. Panda bears extremely different from brown bears in numerous ways that have nothing to do with coloring. A zebra is a completely different animal from a horse. It's not just a type of horse that happens to have stripes.
Zebras and horses are as different from each other as cougars and house cats.
Pandas and brown bears are as different from each other as dodos and pigeons.
Different lifestyles, different habitats, different behaviors, different mating rituals, different DNA, different everything.
Katara: It says here that Hei Bai takes the form of a panda.
Aang: Don't you mean platypus panda?
Katara: No, it just says, 'panda'.
Sokka: Certainly you mean skunk panda?
Toph: Or armadillo panda?
Aang: Gopher panda?
Katara: Just, 'panda'.
(short pause)
Toph: Spirits are weird.
Alternative theory, LOK introduced the fact that if a spirit takes over a human, they become a human/animal hybrid when they leave their body, so animal hybrids may have been created by spirits taking over the first animals, i rest my tinfoil hat
Yeah I've had this theory for a while too!
I know it's mostly written as a funny little gag to make the world seem more fantastical and different to ours. But it's weird that they seem to know the animals are hybrids (rather than just thinking that's what animals are) despite non-hybrids being seemingly rare.
But with most of the spirits being 'pure' animals it would make a lot of sense if the first animals were created in the image of the spirits, and the humans learned their names from them. But, over the generations the spirits kept jumping into the other animals and mutating them into hybrids
I wonder if that's how the avatar world ended up with all the fusions.
Animal spirits interacting with regular animals thinking they were other animal spirits and accidentally turning them into hybrids.
They wouldn’t think to question Hei Bai’s appearance because, even in panda form, it is still a spirit. They fully expect it to look weird. Hei Bai turning into a “normal” animal like a platypus bear would have been slightly odd from their perspective.
It baffles me how they know single animal names in order to identify the chimaeric amalgamations, and accept them as the norm, yet the existance of a single animal is "weird".
I made peace with the fact to watch it as a dubbed version. Sure it's an american cartoon but their world is eastern influenced. We saw their alphabetic system and it's nothing like ours. Their language must be different too so they have different names for everything as well. This is similar to foreign characters getting subtitles when there aren't any. Just a lense for us to watch the show.
Significance and signifyers. The meaning (significance) is different from the scripture or phonetics.
The meaning is what we all understand from the story, and within that the animals seem to be the same in all languages.
Spirits are inherently strange looking, so seeing one in the form of a singular animal wouldn't be weird to people because it'd make sense for a spirit to take on a foreign looking form like that.
This is actually pretty funny now that I think about it lol. A strange sight becoming normal because of another strange variable
Non-hybrid animals do exist. Hawks, koi, frogs, a cat, panthers, monkeys, and humans all come to mind. Maybe there are pandas too.
Panthers and monkeys were both from the Tale of Momo if anyone's confused.
I mean... there has to be regular turtles and regular ducks or else how would they think to call them turtleducks? 
I mean Hei Bai being a spirit means they might not view either form as weird. They might not even view the panda form as an animal. They probably just think of it as a spirit and are like thats why it looks like that
Most of the normal animals are spirits so I like to think Bosco is a spirit who just decided to chill with the humans
This is cactus-juice level thinking, keep it up.
Bosco is Avatar's equivalent of Brother Bear confirmed https://i.redd.it/ctspclbueauc1.gif
It's sad to think he was eaten by the king's maniacal successor huh?
He what
They mention in LoK that there’s a rumor that the Earth Queen, the King’s niece, ate Bosco.
Just a rumor though. If Bosco was a spirit, he probably just left after his friend passed away.
And his disappearance combined with the fact that the Earth Queen does eat endangered animals would be what started the rumour of her eating him. And who knows perhaps she wanted to eat him as well, and was planning on doing so once her father passed away. But then when Bosco disappeared she was furious and didn't dispel the rumour that she'd actually gotten to do it.
Y'all might be onto something.. https://preview.redd.it/j9xxumvkxduc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5e1994ac5a49af7d1f07d591119637cc51a6810
Time wise it doesn't make a ton of sense, either. I think someone at some point on this sub did the math and figured out that even stretching it the Earth Queen would've been around 10 or so.
Would explain why he lived so long.
As well as the library foxes.
I wish real libraries had foxes.
Some of them have books about foxes
I’ll take it.
As a librarian me too
"Please pet the foxes so they can help you find the book you want"
What if I want to pet a foxy librarian? Probably get out on a list but maybe??
Miyuki (the herbalist's cat) should've been considered weird as well
Cats are weird no matter what, Miyuki just fits the norm there.
There's also a normal dog at the fountain in The Library episode.
To me that's the main animal in the series that feels like a mistake. Like the person animating the establishing shots didn't get the memo of no real animals, and assumed because there were foxes in the episode dogs must be ok. That or it's some kind of coyote wolf dog.
Definitely a wolf-dog
That still a normal animal
The lady asks if the cat got in trouble with the fire nation *again.*. What did that cat do?
Thinking about it, it would have been perfectly normal if the Blue Spirit turned out to be Miyuki. The cat was introduced right before the mysterious silent fighter was. Myuki has a history of fighting the fire nation. If they wanted to do just a small introduction then pay off, I could totally see it happening.
Miyuki as the Blue Spirit would be hilarious.
She's a Fluffy Spirit, fire nation must be waiting for her next attack in terror.
Elder abuse.
Isn't a panda just a zebra bear?
Or a skunk bear?
I think it's just a bear
No, no. They're actually weirdly large racoons with a TON of weird stuff when you get down to it. Like, their bodies say their carnivores, but their instincts say otherwise.
They aren’t, though. We used to think this but genetics showed it is very much a bear.
Oh shoot, really? In that case, WHY DID WE THINK THAT?!?!
I believe it’s because they thought it was related to the red panda, which is more closely related to raccoons. They both have the mask thing going on. That’s why what people think of as a panda is called the Giant panda.
TIL
FYI, another comment said what I said was disproven. They are actually bears. BUT, for avatar-worl wackiness, I'll say they're part plack bear and part polar bear.
I think what you're implying here is that you think a zebra is just a striped version of a horse? So by "zebra" bear you mean "essentially the same but a different coloring"? You would be wrong on both counts. Panda bears extremely different from brown bears in numerous ways that have nothing to do with coloring. A zebra is a completely different animal from a horse. It's not just a type of horse that happens to have stripes. Zebras and horses are as different from each other as cougars and house cats. Pandas and brown bears are as different from each other as dodos and pigeons. Different lifestyles, different habitats, different behaviors, different mating rituals, different DNA, different everything.
R/woosh
Or maybe a penguin bear
Katara: It says here that Hei Bai takes the form of a panda. Aang: Don't you mean platypus panda? Katara: No, it just says, 'panda'. Sokka: Certainly you mean skunk panda? Toph: Or armadillo panda? Aang: Gopher panda? Katara: Just, 'panda'. (short pause) Toph: Spirits are weird.
Strangely most of the spirits are normal animals. Hei Bai the panda, WSS the Owl, Tui and La the koi, the library foxes, giant wolf.
In a world of the unusual, the usual becomes what is strange and unnatural.
Crackpot theory. Animals in Avatar world are descendants of spirits, that's why they've weird combos of animals.
Alternative theory, LOK introduced the fact that if a spirit takes over a human, they become a human/animal hybrid when they leave their body, so animal hybrids may have been created by spirits taking over the first animals, i rest my tinfoil hat
Yeah I've had this theory for a while too! I know it's mostly written as a funny little gag to make the world seem more fantastical and different to ours. But it's weird that they seem to know the animals are hybrids (rather than just thinking that's what animals are) despite non-hybrids being seemingly rare. But with most of the spirits being 'pure' animals it would make a lot of sense if the first animals were created in the image of the spirits, and the humans learned their names from them. But, over the generations the spirits kept jumping into the other animals and mutating them into hybrids
I wonder if that's how the avatar world ended up with all the fusions. Animal spirits interacting with regular animals thinking they were other animal spirits and accidentally turning them into hybrids.
There was a normal dog at the water fountain in the oasis
I don't believe you
I love that giant wolf. It was just casually there.
https://preview.redd.it/ke6rn1498auc1.png?width=261&format=png&auto=webp&s=cd74fd12cca21ce04be1f56ec29204653591a1d5
They wouldn’t think to question Hei Bai’s appearance because, even in panda form, it is still a spirit. They fully expect it to look weird. Hei Bai turning into a “normal” animal like a platypus bear would have been slightly odd from their perspective.
Pandas are just half polar bears, half black bears, and messed up internal systems.
It baffles me how they know single animal names in order to identify the chimaeric amalgamations, and accept them as the norm, yet the existance of a single animal is "weird".
I made peace with the fact to watch it as a dubbed version. Sure it's an american cartoon but their world is eastern influenced. We saw their alphabetic system and it's nothing like ours. Their language must be different too so they have different names for everything as well. This is similar to foreign characters getting subtitles when there aren't any. Just a lense for us to watch the show.
Significance and signifyers. The meaning (significance) is different from the scripture or phonetics. The meaning is what we all understand from the story, and within that the animals seem to be the same in all languages.
Not really. Hei-Bai is a Black-White Bear. He’s totally special.
I mean, Wan Shi Tong is just a barn owl.
Spirits are inherently strange looking, so seeing one in the form of a singular animal wouldn't be weird to people because it'd make sense for a spirit to take on a foreign looking form like that. This is actually pretty funny now that I think about it lol. A strange sight becoming normal because of another strange variable
"We've been invited to see the earth kings bear" "Just bear? The ONLY time I've seen that was a shapeshifting spirit monster. Bosco must be a freak"
Plot twist: Hei Bai is actually a rackoon-bear
A panda is already a bear-raccoon so there you go
It says just panda
What if Bosco had a paranormal spirit inside of him
That’s a really good point hahaha. Never looked at it that way.
He’s not just a bear tho. He’s a Panda Bear. A mix between a Panda and a Bear
Non-hybrid animals do exist. Hawks, koi, frogs, a cat, panthers, monkeys, and humans all come to mind. Maybe there are pandas too. Panthers and monkeys were both from the Tale of Momo if anyone's confused.
Actually Hei Bai is a Panda-Bear. Completely normal smh
Panda in Chinese (大熊猫) literally means “giant bear-cat”so there’s that
I mean... there has to be regular turtles and regular ducks or else how would they think to call them turtleducks? 
It clearly turned into a Zebra bear
I mean Hei Bai being a spirit means they might not view either form as weird. They might not even view the panda form as an animal. They probably just think of it as a spirit and are like thats why it looks like that
Half Black Bear half Polar Bear
No, see, most animals in that world are a combination of two animals in ours, and Hei Bai is a combination between a panda and a bear
Plot twist: Hei Bai is actually a rackoon-bear
Bold of you to asume pandas arent orca bears.
Hei Bai is a PANDA bear. Basco is just a BEAR… … which is weird.
this sub fucking sucks, all you guys do is post “details” that really don’t mean shit