Idk If Youre Still Doing These But 🔥 Sokka? Im Watching Atla For The Very First Time Rn And Im Loving

idk if youre still doing these but 🔥 sokka? im watching atla for the very first time rn and im loving your takes on it

not too late for these, especially for one about sokka

i love sokka

my main controversial opinion is that he’s really smart. I don’t really think that’s a controversial opinion though (anymore), and the show gives us plenty of evidence, especially in s3 (but as early as s1 and 2 too), that sokka is the brains of the operation, that he’s the voice of reason and rationality, and has all the strategic/tactical nous. i think he just largely uses humour to cope with his situation and all the pressure that’s on his shoulders as he’s the elder brother and the oldest (and only) warrior left defending the village & the last southern waterbender (and later that changes to the avatar and the last southern waterbender). i think he also tends towards a more scientific outlook probably because he’s a non-bender with a powerful bender for a sister, surrounded by other benders, who have connections to mystical creatures and the spirit world and so on.

i think sokka also acts in the way he does largely because he’s trying to imitate his father - who is both a skilled warrior and a clever tactician - & wants his father to be proud of him, as well. like there is a lot of ‘boy trying to be a man’ in sokka that is equally funny and sad. i think this idealism helps him avoid the pain of his father & all the adult men in his village leaving him and the others behind.

i think when he grows up, after the war has ended, I definitely think he might have more mixed feelings about it all. sokka spends a lot of time trying to be the best possible warrior and tactician, and takes it fairly seriously as well (consider how in s3 he’s always telling the gaang they’re running out of time), because he wants to be his dad, and assumes he’s going to be doing the same thing his dad is doing, and i think in five years time or so it might dawn on him that actually, after all his travelling with the avatar and co, and because they’re in an era of peace now, that absolutely isn’t going to be the case, it’s a whole new world, and he spent a lot of time trying to fit a mould that isn’t needed anymore.

& maybe, just maybe, he might feel a little bit of bitterness about how back then he felt like he was supposed to be responsible for everyone, at the age of 15, when he was still a kid himself.

(sokka probably has a “quarter-life” crisis about this at the age of 23 or something. painfully relatable, if i’m honest.)

i can honestly imagine sokka doing anything in the future except becoming the chief of his tribe. not because he neglects the responsibility - on the contrary he’s always risen to that responsibility, but more because he realises that isn’t where he’s most useful, and that’s not the role for him anymore.

(tbh my own headcanon is that katara becomes chief instead)

EDIT: just wanted to add that i don't really blame hakoda for all of this, like it was a difficult choice to decide to leave his kids behind & it was one imposed by years of fire nation raids and imperialist policies.

i also wanted to add that while i love the fire nation sibs (zuko & azula) to pieces i think something that is very very overlooked with sokka and katara is that while on the surface they're far more functional, they have an equal amount of depth and are also dealing with a lot of trauma. the loss of their mother, the absence of their father, & the effect that fire nation imperialism has on them and how it has hurt their tribe has a very profound effect and the way sokka acts, the way he throws himself into a position of responsibility at such a young age, is a product of this.