Aang + Sokka + Their Single Shared Braincell

posting sokka and aang headcanons i have cause they bring me Serotonin. in no particular order:

sokka cries when aang asks for his blessing to marry katara

aang cries when sokka asks him to be his best man

sokka and aang bake together

it always ends in the whole kitchen being covered in flour

one time, they tried to frost cookies together

somehow, it ended in sokka decorating aang’s head with different colors of frosting

aang got sokka back by smearing a full bag of frosting down sokka’s back

aang picks up the life of a nomad, traveling around and rebuilding the air nomad’s culture

sokka... does a lot of different things. he chills in the southern water tribe for a bit, stays in ba sing se for a while, visits zuko in caldera, explores the countryside villages with toph, practices and trains with suki, is actually taught fully by piandao, etc.

eventually, the whole gaang works together to build republic city, and sokka settles down there for the long run

aang and sokka are penpals, and they write alllll the time. about diplomatic shit, about aang’s adventures, about sokka’s (slightly more secretive) adventures... literally everything

sometimes aang will write sokka complaining about how nomadic life would be so much easier if he just had so-and-so

sokka starts indulging his engineer side and builds a bunch of stuff to make life easier for aang

aang realizes the stuff sokka keeps making for him could help other people and pushes sokka to start selling them to the world

sokka hates being known as fuckin “CoUnCiLmAn SoKkA!!11!!1”... so he opens up a knick knack shop that is in no way related to him

to get back at aang actually, he brands it like an avatar fan merch store

cause why the fuck not

he does actually sell the useful shit, like the fan he made for aang. aang uses air bending to power his, so it’s super effective, but since there’s only one airbender, sokka sells those like rainbow pinwheels that people put in their yards (except they’re wooden and he carved the arrows on them and painted them orange and blue)

sokka thought aang would hate the avatar merch store, but within a week of opening, aang has come to the store at least 13 times to hang out with the kids and sign random merchandise

sokka wants to be upset but now he’s making a bunch of money off a joke so.... win win

sokka sells the first appa and momo plush toys

aang has one of each

sokka cries when he holds bumi for the first time

aang cries when he overhears sokka telling bumi that it’s okay not to be a bender

basically, sokka and aang are brothers. the end.

1. a) sokka crying because he his father is going to war and he cannot join him b) hakoda crying because his son rescued him from being a prisoner of war

2. a) sokka crying because he could not rescue suki from being captured.  b) suki crying because sokka came to rescue her

3. a) yue crying because she cannot protect sokka  b) sokka crying because he could not protect yue

i find it very interesting that unlike the other prominent characters in the series, we rarely see sokka cry. there are plenty of moments in which crying would be appropriate, and in that same circumstance, aang and katara would shed tears without hesitation. even toph and zuko, who feel the need to conform to an invulnerable ideal and “show no weakness” cry more readily than sokka does, who only cries once in a moment that is neither a flashback (to before the men left the tribe) nor played to comedic effect. it is why that moment in “the day of black sun” when azula is baiting him is all the more impactful. 

sokka is someone who refuses to show weakness or rely on others, and it is likely that he has internalized the notion that any display of emotion is a weakness. while he is very expressive, he does not wear his heart on his sleeve like katara does. he cares deeply, and is overtly loyal, but he is also hyper-rational and thinks any display of vulnerability on his part is a fault.  

even though toph is more detached and logical than katara and aang, she is also in tune enough with her emotions that she cries freely when she is upset. and though it is clear that ozai held zuko to a very similar standard of masculinity that sokka holds himself to, in which crying is a weakness, zuko still cries quite a bit throughout the show. 

after hakoda left when sokka was 13, sokka made it his mission to take responsibility for the tribe, for katara, and for anyone he comes to care about over the course of the show. whenever someone he loves gets hurt, he considers it a personal failure, that he could not protect them. it is his greatest weakness, and azula is able to exploit it by reminding him that he was unable to protect suki. in a way that is usually unlike him, he lets his emotions get the better of him despite knowing full-well that it’s a trap. since he became the quote unquote “man of the tribe” when he was 13, he has successfully remained composed – and thus, not “weak” – but it is the reminder that he failed to protect someone that undoes him. 

sokka’s immense guilt over not being able to save suki or his father wracks him, and he willingly – irrationally – puts his life on the line to save them both at the boiling rock. he will do anything he can to save those he loves. though sokka prides himself on his logic, he will always put his loyalty and devotion first, above reason, above rational detachment. 

sokka cried exactly three times in atla, each time because he was unable to protect someone he cared about. and they all cried over him too. 

it’s so funny how sokka thinks of himself as a very average, even insignificant, person, because literally everyone who meets him has an intensely strong reaction immediately upon seeing him. and it’s a very strict binary too. it’s either pure, unadulatered adoration, or extreme annoyance. ppl meet sokka and they’re either like “this is a god among men. a perfect specimen. I would gladly lay down my life for him” or they’re like “wow idk why but I fucking hate the vibes on this kid. I want to bully him til the end of time.” only aang seems to have a normal reaction to sokka, which is “yeah he seems alright :-)”

Just Katara looking 💯 like her father...

...and Sokka looking 💯 like his mother

i find it both incredibly funny and endearing that mikey holds onto his big brother when he’s nervous, and don’s immediate reaction to danger is to get mikey out of sight. 

i spent time on this

sokka and katara have probably never spent more than a week apart from each other, both growing up in the south pole and having literally traveled everywhere together…

…until after the war.

the gaang probably got swept up in fixing the relations between the nations, helping with rebuilding in cities and towns, and just fixing the entire world way past what should have been expected of them, and so when they inevitably went their separate ways, how well do you think sokka and katara coped with that?

do you ever think that katara might sometimes turn around to try and crack a joke about her brother only to realize that sokka isn’t there to laugh with her? did she sometimes forget that the first person she looks to for support simply isn’t there to have her back anymore?

do you ever think about how sokka, maybe searching for a chance to make fun of his little sister, realizes she isn’t there to bicker with him anymore? or how maybe after so many years of trying his hardest to protect her, sokka can’t quite sleep because he isn’t able to know for certain that katara is okay at that very moment?

and when they do end up meeting back up again, did either of them cry after not having seen each other in person for weeks or even months? or were they too stubborn to admit that they missed one another?

how long did it take for these siblings to settle in with the fact that things were never going to be the same as it was before they left the southern water tribe the day that they found aang?

By this point I think I may just be becomming an Epileptic!Kaminari blog, but since the DVD/BluRay just came out I thought I'd cross-post from my Fandom Twitter about why I am so passionate about this headcanon.

There have been plenty of electricity based Superheroes in the past: Static, Black Lightning, Surge, and Thor to name but a few. What marks Denki apart though is the intense NEGATIVE side effects his power has.

There's a trap writers often fall into when creating disabled heroes, where the hero's disability actually grants them some immense power e.g.: Daredevil's superior hearing and reflexes. Denki's quirk does not make his life easier, but much like kids on meds, he's learnt to control it. Mostly.

When Denki releases a sudden and much too intense amount of electricity his brain short circuits, causing him to lose some level of brain function. His dopey expression and dropped gaze could be read as a variety of seizure types. I go with Absence, coz I'm a narcissist.

Not only this, but Denki's "Derp Mode" contains many of the symptoms of a Postictal State ("the altered state of consciousness after an epileptic seizure"). These include, but are not limited to: drowsiness, confusion and headaches. Again, sound familiar? Now, if I believed this was a DELIBERATE attempt at representation I'd be frustrated and a little insulted. There are problematic elements within his "Derp Mode", but when you're epileptic you take what you can get. Which is… overall? Not a lot.

Seriously, take a second to try and think of, say, three explicitly stated epileptic characters in mainstream media... Pretty tough, huh? Even Google can't really help you. Our representation is mostly limited to murder victims.

"How did he die?"

"Well, the super computer didn't like that he tried to turn it off, so it flashed lights at him until he had a seizure and died!"

This is an actual plot line from Elementary. Yeah. It sucks. Back to anime!

Denki's struggle for control is what makes him relatable. He has episodes during regular classes that detract from his learning. His friends make fun of his "derp mode", the period where he's the most vulnerable. These aren't NICE things, but they are all too relatable. He could be criticised for taking too many risks, and trying to use too much of his power at once without thinking it through. This is what we experts call "being a teenager".

From my personal experience, your teen years are when you start to really discover what your triggers are. You try to push yourself, find where your limit is and maybe even try to rebel against it. Perhaps with enough practice you can break those limits and be cured! (Spoiler: You can't be.)

Pushing limits could mean: not taking your medication, staying up late, watching films with flashing lights etc. So when I see Denki being too gun-ho about using his quirk- that's what I see: a teenager testing his limits and making mistakes.

But I also see him LEARNING from those mistakes. He pushes his voltage limit up slowly, testing it in a safe environment with support staff around. He has aids to help refine his technique and prevent overload. His level of self-control from Two Heroes to Heroes Rising is remarkable!

So that brings us back round to the film, and why I cried in the cinema, admittedly on my 4th watch. (I had a pass. I made the most of it.) The answer is: Kaminari knowingly and painfully pushing his limit to save the island. Specifically I am talking about the scene where the power has gone out across the island, and it is Kaminari's job to charge the emergency batteries Momo created to bring power back to mainframe units.

We see him and Momo struggling to produce these generators. They require more energy than they possess, but without them they're doomed. When Jiro suggests they take a break Denki replies "If I don't charge these [batteries] now I won't get to"

This hit home. I have been in that situation. I've had to pull an all nighter. I've had to wake up too early, too often. I've been so stressed that I can feel the tell tale signs of a seizure on the horizon… but I had to push through it. Once that feeling of an oncoming seizure begins there is no taking a break. There is no five minute gap, I have to complete my tasks, be it handing in coursework or stacking shelves, right then coz I'm gonna be flat on my bed in 10 minutes regardless.

That's what I saw in Denki, and in Momo. The familiar pain of knowing the worse is coming, knowing there's nothing you can do, but the pressure of the immediate task means you can't stop. All because, for you, pushing your limits has deadly consequences. For the first time we saw Denki's "Derp Mode" played as a consequence with little to no comedic element. This wasn't "Silly Denki thinking he can do it all! No he can't!" or "Look at his derpy face, how funny it is so make him suffer!"

Denki's loss of awareness was a sign that he had been acting as a hero. He'd given his all for his friends and the islanders. In his next scene we saw him attending a meeting in a Postictal State. He has nothing more to give, but he was still included in the group.

I've never really seen that before. I've never been given a chance to explore those feelings through media. It made me process my life and my choices. Through Denki's extraordinary situation, I was able to look at my ordinary life more clearly.

Denki was me. Denki was me age 10 missing things in class and thinking I was an idiot. He was me age 14, losing friends because they thought I was ignoring them. He was me age 19 at Uni, hiding under a desk during hand-in because my brain couldn't cope anymore. He was me age 24 realising I had to quit my retail job because I couldn't keep up with the long hours; my seizure count going from 1 a month to 3 a day. He's me age 26 crying as I write this.

Representation matters. Seeing yourself represented let's you understand parts of your life you never got to before. It helps you feel seen, like your struggles matter to other people. Denki isn't perfect, but he’s all we have. And I love him.

Here’s a concept that’s been living rent free in my mind for a month: Aizawa and Mic own a nursery and these are the kids that attend

Miguel & Coco looking at Hector while he sings