In the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, certain people are able to “bend” certain elements such as air, water, earth and fire. However, not everyone can bend. The show’s main group consists of Aang, an airbender; Toph an earth master; Katara, a waterbender, and her unbending brother, Sokka. While benders are capable of incredible things, so are non-benders. Even though Sokka can’t bend, he’s still a valuable member of the group. Yes, he might be the comedic relief much of the time, but he’s also the brightest member of the group, delivering some truly incredible performances over the course of the show. Let’s take a look at some of the best moments from everyone’s favorite “meat and sarcasm man.”
6/6 Haiku Battle
No list of great Sokka moments is complete without at least one comedic, and engaging in what is essentially a haiku-centric rap battle is one that highlights some of Sokka’s best traits. Sokka comes across a group of girls studying poetry and is forced onto the stage after a horse kicks him through a window. The class instructor teaches Sokka the format of a haiku (three lines with five, seven, then five syllables) and the two go back and forth until Sokka accidentally adds a sixth syllable in his last line. But having learned what a haiku is a few moments earlier, Sokka is holding up pretty well and can even name his every reliable boomerang in one of his poems. It’s a funny moment, but it’s also one that showcases his creativity and ability to think on the fly, traits that would serve him well as he traveled through the Fire Nation.
5/6 Training with Piandao
Sokka meets the legendary swordsman Piandao in the episode “Sokka’s Master”, arguably the best episode of the show where Sokka takes center stage. After the other benders in the group put out a fire caused by a falling meteor, Sokka begins to feel like he’s not contributing anything meaningful and tries to learn swordsmanship from Piandao, the best swordsman the Fire Nation has ever had. . Piandao accepts Sokka as a student after admitting that he still has a lot to learn, something Piandao rarely if ever hears. The training includes not only sword fighting, but also calligraphy and painting, all tasks that Sokka puts his own unique stamp on (for example, he adds a rainbow to his painting). Even in the fight with Piandao, he compliments Sokka on his best qualities, such as his intelligence. However, while Sokka is training, the other members of the group feel totally lost without him and are genuinely happy to see him when he returns.
4/6 Saving a village from Jet
Jet was a freedom fighter that Aang and his friends met while traveling in the Earth Kingdom. At first, Jet seems really noble and saves Aang and his friends from some Fire Nation soldiers. The only one who remains skeptical of him and his freedom fighters is Sokka, and for good reason, as we’ll find out later. Skepticism grows when Jet and his minions harass the old Fire Nation man, despite Sokka’s protests, and are fully justified when Sokka learns that Jet plans to blow up a dam, which will cause a flood that will wipe out several Fire Nation soldiers. .. and the village where they are. While Aang and Katara try to stop Jet and his minions, Sokka tries to evacuate the village and gets help from a surprising source: the old man Jet who was previously harassed. The two manage to evacuate the village in time. It’s a great moment for Sokka, who shows that although he has no love for the Fire Nation, he will not harm innocent civilians, unlike Jet.
3/6 Breaking in and out of the boiling rock
The Boiling Rock is essentially the Fire Nation equivalent of Alcatraz. After the failed invasion on the Day of the Black Sun, Sokka tries to break into the prison to see if he can catch his father. With Zuko as his guide, the two infiltrate the prison and find not only Sokka’s father, but also Suki. When you think of “jailbreak,” you often think of elaborate escape plans. Sokka comes up with two clever plans that aren’t quite as elaborate, but still get the job done. The first is to use the coolers the prison uses as punishment and float away in them, which would have worked if one of the inmates that went with them hadn’t touched it as Sokka told him not to. Plan B is much simpler: start a riot and escape into the ensuing chaos. It takes talent to devise even one plan to escape from prison. Sokka came up with two, one of which wasn’t all that risky. Good thing Sokka wasn’t the main character in movies like The Great Escape or The Shawshank Redemption. If he was, they’d be over in fifteen minutes.
2/6 Take out the Fire Nation’s airships
In the series finale, Sozin’s comet returns, a comet that only appears once a century and boosts the power of a firebender. Fire Lord Ozai, the show’s biggest and baddest adversary, plans to use the comet to literally burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground. Accompanied by a fleet of airships, it seems very likely that Ozai will be able to do it, especially since the airships can keep going while Ozai is busy fighting Aang. However, Sokka, Suki and Toph have other plans. After sneaking aboard one of the airships and getting it under control, they use it to slice through the other ships in the fleet. Whose idea is it to use one airship to cut through the other? Well, Sokka’s, of course.
1/6 Defeat combustion man
Combustion Man (or Sparky Sparky Boom Man, as he is sometimes called) was an assassin hired by Zuko with the unique ability to bend fire with his mind. He relentlessly pursues the Avatar, culminating in a final showdown at the Western Air Temple, where Zuko has decided to defect and attempt to recall the killer. Nevertheless, Combustion Man continues and has our heroes pinned down. Combustion Man keeps his head above water, which, as Obi-Wan Kenobi taught us, is essential in any battle. On the other hand, Sokka has a boomerang and a solid knowledge of trigonometry. His trusty boomerang hits Combustion Man in the forehead, right on his tattoo, proving enough to disable Combustion Man’s ability to firebending with his mind. However, the killer tries anyway, which backfires leading to his eventual demise. It’s one of the most impressive wins Sokka had in the entire show.