Haru

:This article is about the character in the series. For the character in the video games, see here.
Haru was a skilled earthbender whose Earth Kingdom village was temporarily occupied by the Fire Nation during the final years of the Hundred Year War. After breaking his father, Tyro, and several other earthbenders out of a Fire Nation prison rig with the aid of Team Avatar, Haru became part of his father's militia and fought in the wider anti-Fire Nation rebellions of the western Earth Kingdom.
Later, he joined forces with Hakoda and took part in the invasion of the Fire Nation, though avoided the fate of the majority of the invaders by escaping capture alongside Team Avatar. Following the Great War, he reunited with his father and other friends.
== History ==
=== Early life ===
Haru was born to Tyro and his wife and was taught earthbending by his father. When the Fire Nation invaded Haru's village in 94 AG, Haru witnessed his father and the other earthbenders fight back, despite being outnumbered, and ultimately taken away, leaving him alone with his mother. To ensure his safety, Haru was forbidden from earthbending by his mother, although he continued to practice in secret, as a way to feel close to his father.
=== Prison breakout ===
During late fall of 99 AG, as Haru was practicing alone, Avatar Aang and his friends stumbled upon him. He was initially scared and fled, fearing that his practice had been discovered by untrustworthy people. However, Team Avatar followed him to his home, revealing his earthbending practice to his mother. Even though Haru tried to deflect their claims by accusing them of being crazy, Haru's mother readily believed that he was still training earthbending. Before the discussion could continue, a Fire Nation tax collector arrived and take most of the earnings of Haru's family. Once he was gone, Haru expressed his outrage at the tyranny of the occupation regime as well as the locals' unwillingness to fight back.
Haru's mother allowed Team Avatar to stay for the night. Later, Haru and Katara struck up a kinship over shared experiences, and walked through the nearby woods. However, they came upon a villager trapped under a rock slide. At Katara's urging, Haru aided him through earthbending, but the old man betrayed him to the Fire Nation soldiers. In the night, a Fire Nation patrol took the young earthbender into custody, even as Team Avatar was sleeping nearby.
Haru was brought to the same prison rig where his father was also held, and was thus happy to be united once again. However, he also experienced the prison warden's tyrannical regime and the other prisoners' hopelessness, affecting his own perspective. Meanwhile, Aang and Sokka helped engineer Katara's false arrest for earthbending so she would be taken to the shipyard. Haru was shocked and impressed when discovering Katara on the prison rig, but initially shared his father's view that a breakout was not possible.
Later on, Katara and her friends engineered a mass prison rebellion by channelling coal from a depot into the prisoners' area, thus providing the earthbenders with a substance they could bend and fight with. Despite this, the prisoners were reluctant to take up arms. When Katara held an inspirational speech and the warden cruelly mocked her for believing in the earthbenders, Haru was pushed to his breaking point and attacked the Fire Nation overseer with small coal pieces. As the warden demanded his soldiers to kill Haru for this insolence, the other prisoners joined the revolt. A large battle broke out, and Haru fought alongside his father, quickly improving his combat skills. Ultimately, Haru and the others were able to escape the prison on several captured ships. On the way back to the mainland, Haru expressed his thanks to Team Avatar, unsuccessfully urging Katara to join his father's group so they could continue fight the Fire Nation together.
=== Life as militia member ===
Reunited with his father and reinforced by fellow earthbenders, Haru had a chance to drive the Fire Nation away from his home. Tyro subsequently organized a militia (nicknamed "Team Tyro") and decided to attack the prison rig to shut it down for good. Using boats to carry dirt supplies to the rig, the militia initially made good progress against the remants of the warden's garrison, only for Fire Nation reinforcements to arrive. A stalemate developed. Haru and the rest of the militia held the rig's lower section, while the warden's soldiers controlled the upper levels. Eventually, an Earth Kingdom Army unit under Boqin offered aid to help turn the battle in the rebels' favor. Alongside his father, Haru greeted Boqin's soldiers when they arrived at the rig, explaining the tactical situation. As Boqin moved to begin a major attack to break the Fire Nation defenders, Haru paused and took his father to the side, telling him that he was unsure about becoming a soldier as he just wanted to build, and was deeply uncomfortable with what he had seen of warfare so far. Tyro sadly expressed sympathy, but also reminded his son that they had to fight right now so that no future earthbenders had to experience what they were experiencing. Haru agreed, stating that "when the dust settles, then I will build."
As Tyro's militia advanced into the rig's industrial section, fighting the warden's troops, Haru unsuccessfully attempted to engage in conversation with the Fire Nation soldiers and to convince them to stop resisting. Eventually, the insurgents came across a cornered Earth Kingdom soldier belonging to an advance party. The man was beset by firebenders and wounded, so the rebels quickly intervened to save his life. After reaching the rig's upper areas, Haru and his comrades repeatedly made supplies runs to provide the fighters on the frontline with earth. Eventually, Tyro's militia reached the entry area to the rig's headquarters, finding it closed shut. To open the gate, the group sought keys held by the Fire Nation officers. At the barracks, they discovered one of these officers, Juro, as he was tending to wounded troops. Much to the rebels' surprise, Juro was generally friendly and initially unwilling to fight them. However, the soldier refused to hand over his key, causing a fight. Regardless, Haru declared Juro a "class act" for the soldier's fair and friendly behavior. At the armory, the rebels found the second key in the possession of Goro who immediately attacked them, but was overpowered.
With the keys in their hands, the rebels opened the gate and advanced toward the headquarters. In doing so, they were reinforced by Boqin himself. Upon arriving at a metal bridge, however, they saw the warden alone. The cruel overseer was waiting at the other side, taunting them. Enraged, Boqin's men attacked, even as Haru attempted to hold them back due to suspecting a trap. Just as the young earthbender had feared, the warden blew up the bridge, injuring many of the Earth Kingdom soldiers including Boqin. Despite this setback, Tyro's militants resolved to keep pushing. They brought more earth from their ships and created a makeshift rock bridge to finally get to the warden. Before facing him, however, Haru asked his father whether he was ready, considering that their opponent had brutalized him for years. Tyro expressed his willingness to fight, and the insurgents attacked the warden's last forces. After a hard battle, they defeated the Fire Nation troops. Haru and Tyro bonded over their success, and also talked about how thankful they were of Team Avatar for restoring their hope.
After their victory at the prison rig, Boqin assumed responsibility for the platform so that the rebels could return home. Haru and his father subsequently helped to liberate their village from Fire Nation control, along with many others, as part of the spreading rebellions in occupied Earth Kingdom territories.
=== Day of the Black Sun ===
Haru, now sporting a mustache and a goatee, was one of many familiar but noticeably distinct faces recruited by Sokka and Hakoda to help in the invasion of the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun. Haru and his father were part of the ground forces attacking the Fire Nation capital. Their initial advance was fairly successful despite heavy resistance, but the Fire Nation revealed the entire event to be a trap. When the invasion force's submarines were destroyed, the warriors mostly decided to surrender. Haru promised Tyro that they would return to rescue them. The young people, namely Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Teo, The Duke, and Haru subsequently escaped on Appa and travelled to the Western Air Temple.
Haru befriended both Teo and The Duke after the invasion, and upon arrival at the Western Air Temple, he and his two friends began to explore the temple. They found it to be the perfect place to hang out and for Haru to practice some earthbending. While staying at the temple, Haru took part in numerous activities with the team, including spectating a "swordbending" match, practicing his bending, and joining Sokka's "Bendless Boomerang Club" after he decided to open it up to the whole team.
Haru stuck with Aang's group until Azula and her air fleet attacked the temple. He fled along with Hakoda and his friends while Aang's group flew off on Appa. He later reunited with them during Zuko's coronation after the Hundred Year War ended, finally together with his father once again.
== Personality ==
Haru was usually upbeat, idealistic, and thoughtful, hoping for a better future and wishing to become someone who used his bending to build instead of destroy. In this regard, he also liked to improve the mood of his allies by making quips. Haru also tried to make his Fire Nation opponents see why the Earth Kingdom was fighting, thus preventing bloodshed and to enable mediation. At the same time, years of Fire Nation suppression and the experiences of war also affected Haru. Before being imprisoned, he was insecure and fearful over the threat of being punished for earthbending, despite wanting to fight back. At times, he exhibited a deep-seated anger at the cruelty of the Fire Nation invaders, but was also uncomfortable with his own role as a militia member causing harm to others. Nevertheless, he became a courageous and noble warrior.
Haru displayed something of a philosophical streak. He mused about the Avatar's role beyond their great bending powers as well as whether the Great War was ultimately exploiting Fire Nation soldiers just as much as Earth Kingdom natives.
== Abilities ==
Haru was a skilled earthbender. Even with minimal training, he was able to manipulate boulders and prevent debris from crushing a man. He preferred earthbending with his hands unlike most earthbenders, who preferred to earthbend with their feet. In this regard, Haru often bent smaller or medium-sized rocks rapidly instead of larger, slower objects.
In the early uprising, Haru discovered that his bending worked very well when he coordinated with other benders, and he subsequently displayed a growing skill in executing complex bending skills as part of teams. Together with his father, Haru was able to compress a large amount of coal into a single projectile, a difficult feat to accomplish. He also learned how to create earth shields strong enough to withstand a combined blast from several firebenders.
== Relatives ==
== Appearances ==
== Trivia ==
* Haru (春, はる) in Japanese means the season "spring", which correlates with spring being the dominant season for earthbenders.
* In , Team Avatar was captured by the Fire Nation after trying to rescue a from Fire Nation troops, but they failed and were placed with him and his father in a compound where the earthbenders from his village were interned. He reunited with his father and threw the first blow in the liberation of his village after an inspirational speech by Aang. Although the boy was never named and was significantly younger than Haru, his story could be easily identified as that of "Imprisoned".
* During his Day of Black Sun mission briefing, Sokka humorously said that Haru "now [had] a mustache", an inside joke about Haru lacking facial hair during their first meeting.
* Haru is a playable character in the first Avatar video game.
== References ==
de:Haru
es:Haru
fi:Haru
fr:Haru
he:הארו
nl:Haru
ru:Хару
Category:A to Z
Category:Avatar: Generations characters
Category:Characters
Category:Comics characters
Category:Earth Kingdom characters
Category:Earthbenders
Category:Major characters
Category:Soldiers