Ice Bear's backstory episode. In this episode, Baby Ice Bear is alone in the Arctic and being hunted. After sneaking into a tent to try and steal food, he is attacked by a hermetic man named Yuri. After that bad first impression, Yuri agrees to let Ice Bear live with him and the two begin to grow close.
Tropes:
- Berserk Button: Attempting to look through Yuri's tragic possessions involving his lost family will always set him off, even after how close he and Ice Bear had become, something Ice Bear learned the hard way.
- Bilingual Bonus: Yuri's frustrated mumbling when he hurts his leg is in Russian, as are some of his other exclamations.
- Bloodless Carnage: When Ice Bear gets caught in a bear trap, all it does is clamp down on his paw without causing any damage.
- Broken Bird: The death of Yuri's family got him to act cold and abrasive.
- Call-Forward: This episode shows how Ice Bear got his personal fondness for axes, as well as some of his interests. It also implies that Yuri referring to himself in the third person is the reason behind Ice Bear doing the same thing in the present.
- Chekhov's Gun: During the Hard-Work Montage, there are multiple shots of the duo tinkering with Yuri's fickle snowmobile. It gives out on them during the chase.
- Cynicism Catalyst: We later find out Yuri had a wife and daughter who are implied to be dead.
- Defrosting Ice King: Yuri starts off as a cranky man who only keeps Ice Bear around for work, but does warm up to him over time.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Ice Bear whistles a bit of the show's theme song while sweeping up Yuri's tent.
- Downer Ending: Yuri is forced to send Ice Bear adrift into the ocean on a slab of ice so the hunters can't get him. Ice Bear becomes greatly saddened by this, never seeing his only parental figure again while Yuri regretfully resigns to being all alone once again.
- Evil Poacher: The hunters who are after Ice Bear.
- Get Out!: Yuri furiously says this to Ice Bear after Ice Bear reveals he had looked through his Tragic Keepsake and forcibly chases him out of his tent. He changes his mind when he hears the hunters coming for Ice Bear, as he couldn't leave him to die like his family had and comes to regret saying it after being forced to send him away, losing his only companion for so long.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The lead hunter has some claw mark scars across his face, no doubt a gift from some polar bear he killed.
- Gratuitous Russian: This song plays during the episode.
According to the We Bare Bears wiki some native speakers even have trouble understanding what is being said; for the record, it's called "A Song Under the Arc of the Bell" and actually quite suggestive. - Hard-Work Montage: We get to see where Ice Bear developed some of the skills he has now.
- Heartbroken Badass: As mentioned in Cynicism Catalyst, it is implied that Yuri's family is dead and that is the reason for his cold demeanor.
- Husky Russkie: Yuri is a huge and stoic man who can live out in the Arctic all by himself.
- Innocently Insensitive: Ice Bear gives Yuri the wooden horse that the latter's daughter used to own as a gift, but it ends up infuriating Yuri, who was traumatized by the death of his family, and he throws the horse at him in the middle of his rage.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yuri is initially very cold (no pun intended) towards Ice Bear but eventually grows to be very close with him.
- Manly Tears: Shed by Ice Bear twice, when he gets kicked out after angering Yuri and again when he has to leave him in order to get away from the lead hunter.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Yuri is a Russian man who, despite being old, is very active and resilient. You'd have to be to live all alone in the Arctic.
- No Mouth: Yuri's mouth is covered up by his mustache that reaches to his beard.
- Origins Episode: This episode serves as this for Ice Bear. It still doesn't explain how he met Panda and Grizzly, though.
- Orphan's Ordeal: It is implied in the beginning that Ice Bear witnessed his mother killed by poachers after hiding himself in the snow. In the end of the episode, he becomes heartbroken about having to become an orphan once more when Yuri has to send him away to keep him safe from the hunters' wrath at the cost of never seeing his only parental figure again.
- Outliving One's Offspring: It is implied that Yuri had outlived his beloved daughter, and he has been trying to forget about her along with his wife without properly grieving for years, which only makes it worse for him by losing his temper whenever he is reminded about them.
- Papa Wolf: Yuri comes to Ice Bear's rescue when he gets caught in the bear trap and is about to be killed by the hunters, despite his previous anger at Ice Bear for pushing his Berserk Button, as he couldn't leave him to die just like his family had.
- Parental Substitute: Yuri can be seen as this to cub Ice Bear when the latter is implied to have lost his mother to poachers.
- Replacement Goldfish: It also goes the other way around too, as Ice Bear serves as the substitute for the daughter Yuri lost.
- Russian Bear: It's implied that Ice Bear the polar bear was born in Siberia and it's shown that Yuri the Husky Russkie was a father figure to him.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Yuri first appears to be a short-tempered, aloof, and cynical hermit who is initially very bitter towards Ice Bear, but is later revealed to be a mournful, grieving, and depressed former family man who lost his wife and child to unknown causes.
- The Stoic: Yuri, goes well with being Russian.
- Suddenly Voiced: Young Ice Bear, sort of. In other cub episodes, he had literally no vocal effects, but here he makes some noises such as grunting, gasping, sniffing, and sighing.
- Third-Person Person: Yuri, which explains where Ice Bear got it from.
- Took a Level in Kindness: At the beginning of the episode, Yuri tried to attack Ice Bear with an axe for trespassing in his tent but relents when Ice Bear helps him out when he breaks his leg, and as the episode progresses begins bonding with him overtime as a parental figure. By the end, he is willing to risk life and limb to keep him safe, and is deeply saddened having to send him away.
- Would Hurt a Child: Yuri chases Ice Bear with an axe when he finds him trespassing in his tent. Granted, he thought he was a pest, but still...
