History of Sokka (Summer 100 AG)

Sokka and the rest of Team Avatar traveled to the Fire Nation, disguised themselves as Fire Nation citizens, waiting, and making necessary preparations for the invasion.

Plans ahead


When Aang awoke on a Fire Nation ship, Sokka informed him about how they had returned to Chameleon Bay after he was injured by Azula. They had found his father and later captured a Fire Nation ship. Sokka explained that the Earth King and Bosco had decided to travel the world in disguise, and mentioned that they had recently gotten through the Serpent's Pass. According to Sokka, although their forces were greatly outnumbered for the invasion, however, they had one clear advantage: the world believed the Avatar to be dead, and thus would not be hunting for him any longer. However, Aang did not take this revelation well at all because this marked the second "death" of the Avatar. Sokka and the others separated from the rest of the Water Tribe warriors and decided to meet them on the Day of Black Sun.



Meanwhile, Sokka and the others began traveling through the Fire Nation and used a combination of waterbending and airbending to hide Appa in a cloud. They took temporary shelter in a cave, but not before Sokka could call some harmless toucan-puffins, enemy birds, and then went to seek out new clothes to help them better blend into the Fire Nation. They found an unattended clothesline and stole some outfits, and then went to town to buy some accessories. In town, the group attempted to act natural, which was somewhat impeded by Aang, who, having traveled through the Fire Nation a century before, claimed to be an expert of their customs, however, his slang was obviously outdated. Aang returned to the cave at nightfall, relieving Katara, Sokka, and Toph, who were evidently worried by his long absence. The fact that he had been attending a Fire Nation school all day shocked Aang's friends, and when he claimed that he enjoyed the experience and wished to return to the school the next day, Sokka strongly objected. Aang managed to convince him to allow it by pointing out that it was an opportunity to discover information about the Fire Nation, specifically mentioning a "secret river" they were going to learn about that led to Fire Lord Ozai's palace. Sokka reluctantly agreed that Aang should go back the next day.

Aang got into trouble for "roughing up" Hide, a favored student of the Headmaster, resulting in a parent-teacher conference. Sokka and Katara attended the conference acting as Aang's parents, "Mr. Wang Fire" and "Mrs. Sapphire Fire." While they managed to succeed in fooling the teacher, Sokka was against Aang returning to school. Aang therefore planned to hold a secret dance party in the cave for everyone in the school. After the dance party was crashed by the headmaster, the group fled on Appa. As they left, they surprised a small Fire Nation kid by earthbending the tunnel shut.



The group then came across the fishing village of Jang Hui, which was in a deep depression. Many villagers were sick, and there was a lack of food because of the polluted water. Katara wished to help the people, but Sokka said their overall mission was too important to stop to help everybody they came across. That night, Sokka tried to find a way to rearrange their schedule, and mentioned that the solar eclipse would only last for about eight minutes. In the morning, Appa was found lying on his side, his tongue colored purple. Katara suggested that the village might have some herbs that could heal him. The shop keeper, Xu, said that the Painted Lady came the night before and gave the town food and medicine. Sokka skeptically noted that the Painted Lady's work would be all for nothing unless she helped them all the time, as long as that factory was still there, and jokingly suggested that the spirit should use her "spirit magic" to "blow it up." In the morning, Katara and Aang arrived back at the camp and found Sokka and Toph waiting for them, having found out the truth on how Katara was acting like the Painted Lady. As they prepared to leave, they saw a squad of Fire Nation troops heading towards the town on motorized boats, and realized that they must've believed the villagers had sabotaged the factory. Katara was determined to stop them, and despite their argument, Sokka readily agreed to help her once he saw that she was set on helping. Katara, with help from Sokka, Aang, Toph, and Appa, chased away the Fire Nation troops, and then helped the village clean up the polluted river.

Sokka's master


The group later stopped in Shu Jing to watch a meteor shower when a meteorite landed near the town. Sokka was left to do almost nothing other than watch over Momo while Toph, Aang, and Katara extinguished the ignited fire using their various bending abilities. The next day, while the group ate in the same town that they saved, Sokka voiced what disturbed him: he felt ordinary and, by extension, inferior, compared to the others, who exhibited such amazing abilities. Katara suggested that Sokka learn from a master, since each of the others once had a master of their own. To appease him in the meanwhile, she suggested that the group go shopping, which cheered Sokka up noticeably. As he tried out various weapons, he finally stumbled upon a sword. The shopkeeper informed the group that it was crafted by the best sword maker and swordsman in Fire Nation history, Piandao. Katara said that they all had mentors and that Sokka should seek out the master's help.



Sokka paid a visit to Piandao's castle and was met by the butler. Sokka was informed that Piandao often turned away those who apply for tutelage, but allowed Sokka to present his case regardless. Finally, while seeing the man's back as he practiced calligraphy, Sokka presented that he felt he was worthless, despite having traveled the world. His words were met with Piandao's invitation for them to see just how worthy he was, together. Thus, the two began their first day of training. Piandao offered several training exercises meant to build more than Sokka's use of a sword, such as painting a landscape he was able to view for only a few seconds to teach him to grasp the landscape in the heat of battle, and rock gardening to teach him to manipulate the landscape in his favor. At the end of the day, Sokka felt he'd learned nothing, but Piandao disagreed: though he messed up at every exercise, he messed up in a very "special" way, exhibiting cunning, creativity, and spirit in each.

Therefore, after only the first day, Piandao told Sokka that he was ready for a real sword. However, rather than giving Sokka one of his own, he told Sokka that he would make his own sword, since it was an extension of him. Sokka, rather than using materials on hand, opted to bring in his own material. Returning to the group, who had missed his jokes and had been planning finesse fiercely, he enlisted their help to roll the meteorite which fell the day before to the mansion of the master. There, the two broke the meteorite into smaller pieces, melted them, and forged the sword. As soon as it was completed, Piandao presented Sokka with the finished blade, revealed to have a black blade due to the unique material used to forge it. He then proclaimed that Sokka had been the most worthy apprentice he had ever had. At this, Sokka could no longer bear the lie he told and revealed his true identity and origin to the master.



Piandao said that he was sorry too, and attacked. Sokka was able to defend himself, and told the others not to interfere, as this was his fight. The two moved to the dueling grounds, where Sokka deftly avoided the man's strikes using various tactics he had learned like manipulating the environment, fighting from the high ground, and utilizing his superior agility, with Piandao complimenting his pupil several times for all the reasons. Piandao finally disarmed Sokka, but when the others moved to help him, Piandao relented with a smile and divulged that he was too old to fight the Avatar. The master said that he had known Sokka was from the Water Tribe since he came, and that he should consider using a different name, such as Lee, which he comically stated to be a popular name. He then told Sokka, when asked why he trained him if he knew the truth, that "the art of the sword" belonged to no one nation just as it belonged to no one person. He encouraged Sokka to train everyday, saying that if he continued to walk that path, he would become an even greater master than he himself was. When leaving, Sokka was given a Pai Sho tile by Piandao, the white lotus. While they walked away Sokka presented Toph with a fragment of the meteorite that he had saved.

Combustion Man and travel to Roku's island
While relaxing in an isolated quarry, Aang unknowingly revealed his identity to two Fire Nation soldiers patrolling the area. The soldiers sent a message to the Fire Lord upon this discovery on a messenger hawk; however, the hawk was attacked on its journey to deliver the message. It instead fell into the hands of the hired assassin, Combustion Man, who snuck up on the group as they slept near the quarry. He attacked them, but they all managed to escape on Appa.

Sokka and the others later journeyed to Roku's old home, known simply as Roku's island. Aang meditated there and entered the Spirit World where Avatar Roku shared his history with him. When Sokka was asked if the Spirit World had bathrooms, he replied that they didn't. He later joined in holding hands.

Scams and preparation


When the group came to a Fire Nation city, Toph took up scamming, which started a feud between her and Katara. Toph, Aang, and Sokka started racking in loads of money with Toph's acting. With his new money, Sokka went to a store selling dragon hawks. After buying a dragon hawk, Hawky, Sokka found a wanted poster for 'The Runaway,' also known as Toph. He showed it to her and was embarrassed when Toph had to remind him she couldn't see what was on the paper. After Sokka read it aloud, Toph was delighted at the nickname and how much money was offered for her return. Sokka later spoke to Toph to try to mend the rift between her and Katara. As they discussed how Katara's motherly instincts actually helped them, Sokka took Toph for a chat about Katara, not knowing that she had been bathing underneath in the water below them. Sokka said about how he was dependent on Katara, and Toph agreed. Sokka then stated that he didn't even remember the way his mother looked. He said that whenever he tried to picture his mother, Katara was the only person he could see. The group was soon found by Combustion Man and they were forced to leave.

Later the gang traveled to a mysterious village where there had been reports of several disappearances of residents living there. An old innkeeper, Hama, offered them shelter at her inn, however, Sokka became highly suspicious of the elderly woman. His suspicion temporarily dissipated when he and the rest discovered that Hama originated from the Southern Water Tribe and was a prisoner of the Fire Nation for many years. However, his skepticism was renewed upon discovery that Hama was secretly behind the strange kidnappings of the villagers. He and Aang assisted Katara in dueling Hama and she was eventually arrested.

Several weeks later, Sokka and the gang arrived at the Black Cliffs, a small uninhabited island where the entire invasion force would assemble on the Day of Black Sun. However, they arrived four days early, causing Aang to suffer from a lack of sleep and hallucinations as he worried about his upcoming duel with Fire Lord Ozai. Along with Katara and Toph, Sokka attempted to help Aang by acting as his therapist, donning the same beard and mustache from his disguise as "Wang Fire." The group was eventually successful in putting Aang's fears to rest, assuring him that he was in fact ready for the battle due to his expanded bending prowess.

Moment of truth


Finally, the Day of Black Sun arrived, and so did the entire invasion force, led by Sokka's father, Hakoda. They showed up with many of the gang's old allies, among them Bato, Haru, Teo, the mechanist, and many others. The mechanist had in fact spent months designing and manufacturing various weapons for the invasion, although Sokka's original sketches were "hard to interpret." Among these weapons were eclipse glasses, submarines for underwater infiltration, and treaded tanks for Earth Kingdom troops. The invasion force then assembled for the announcement of the battle plans, but Sokka got stage fright in front of the crowd and let his father take over. Sokka was ashamed of his performance, but Aang assured him that it was what he would do on the battlefield that will really matter. Sokka, wearing the traditional armor of his people, lead the invasion force alongside his friends, his father, and Bato into the Fire Nation capital, where they succeeded in destroying dozens of tanks and forcing the surprised firebenders to go on the defensive. When Hakoda was severely wounded destroying a Fire Nation battlement, Sokka took over as leader and took the Royal Plaza, and while doing so displays remarkable swordsmanship against the firebenders. Aang then went off to face Fire Lord Ozai.



Sokka continued to lead the invasion force while Katara healed their wounded father. Everything went well until Aang came back to tell them that Ozai was not at the Royal Palace and that the whole capital was deserted. Sokka then realized that the Fire Nation knew they were coming, and after everyone agreed that they must press on, Sokka and Toph accompanied Aang to the capital, where Sokka deduced that the Fire Lord may be hiding in an underground bunker. Using her earthbending, Toph easily found it, much to Sokka's joy. However, it was Princess Azula who was at the bunker, not the Fire Lord. She revealed that she knew about the invasion for months and that she figured that Aang survived her lightning attack. However, Azula's firebending was disabled by the eclipse, so Sokka demanded that she reveal the Fire Lord's true position. She refused, instead sending a pair of Dai Li agents from Ba Sing Se to fight them. The group eventually defeated the agents, but Azula was way too fast to be taken down. Sokka stopped his two friends from attacking, realizing that Azula was distracting them in the caves in order to waste their eclipse time, so they went off to find Ozai.



Suddenly, Azula revealed that she knew who Sokka was because her "favorite prisoner" used to insist that Sokka would one day rescue her. She then claimed that she gave up on him because he never came. Sokka immediately knew that she was referring to Suki, his girlfriend from Kyoshi Island. Filled with rage, Sokka attacked Azula, and Toph narrowly stopped her from stabbing him with a knife. Sokka demanded that Azula reveal Suki's location, but she stood there silently. Suddenly, the eclipse ended and she escaped with her firebending, revealing Ozai's location. Sokka blamed himself for ruining the invasion, but his friends assured him that it was not his fault. When Aang insisted that he should fight the Fire Lord without the eclipse, Sokka convinced him not to, assuring him that there would be a next time.

Sokka informed the troops of Azula's trap and ordered an evacuation. Unfortunately, a force of Fire Nation zeppelins showed up out of nowhere and destroyed the submarines long before the group could escape, so Hakoda, now mostly recovered, insisted that Sokka and all younger members of the group fled the country. Sokka and Katara said farewell to their father and promised to come back as soon as possible to save them. Sokka, Katara, Aang, and all of their younger allies from the invasion force were currently riding on Appa to the Western Air Temple, where the group would seek temporary refuge.

The Western Air Temple
Encountering Zuko again, with claimed that he was a different person now who wanted to help them, Sokka showed distrust, and later rage, when Zuko clumsily let out that he sent Combustion Man after them. He openly threatened to attack Zuko if he did not leave.

Later, when the assassin attacked the group, Sokka used his boomerang to defeat Combustion Man by calculating his trajectory. He allowed Zuko to join the team, trusting Aang's judgment on the matter. Even though Sokka voiced hanging around with Zuko "is really really weird," he soon became much more comfortable with the matter, often the subject of his sarcastic remarks such as "jerkbending" and "jumping into a volcano."

The Boiling Rock


Zuko was serving the group tea while Sokka sulked in a corner. When Zuko came to bring him his tea, Sokka asked to speak to him alone. When Zuko joined him, Sokka asked where the Fire Nation would keep war prisoners, as many members of the Invasion Force were captured by the Fire Nation. Zuko told him that his best guess would be the Boiling Rock prison, a maximum-security facility located over a boiling lake just south of where they are. When Zuko asked why Sokka is asking about it, Sokka only said that "Just knowing makes me feel better" and walked away with Zuko watching him. The following morning, Sokka woke up a few hours earlier than the others and snuck quietly towards Appa. When he got there, he found Zuko waiting for him, unsurprised to see that he was leaving. Sokka admitted that he was going to the Boiling Rock. He said that, because the invasion plan was his idea, it was his responsibility to free the prisoners and that he "needed his honor back." Zuko said he understood but that it was a bad idea to go alone and offered to go with him. At first, Sokka refused, until Zuko pointed out that it would be impossible to get there on Appa, and that they should instead take his War Balloon. Sokka agreed, and the two of them set out to the Boiling Rock, leaving the others a letter saying they were out to get meat.

The two of them were awkward around each other at first while on the balloon. Eventually, they began talking more naturally about their histories. Their conversation moved to their girlfriends, with Zuko talking about Mai, and Sokka relating how Yue, his first girlfriend, turned into the Moon Spirit. Zuko responded by saying "That's rough, buddy," showing just how much a person's attitude could change towards someone, the prime example being when Zuko disrespectfully referred to Sokka as a "Water Tribe peasant."



They arrived at the Boiling Rock and the balloon started going down. Sokka realized that the air outside the balloon was just as hot as the air inside, so they couldn't fly. They crash landed the balloon by the side of the island and snuck into the prison. Inside, they found some guard uniforms and began posing as guards until they were called out into the yard. There, they found Chit Sang being harassed by a guard. Eventually, the guard provoked the prisoner into firebending, prompting him to be taken to the Cooler. Sokka was ordered to help and told Zuko to meet him in an hour. He took note of the function of the Cooler in how icy it was and how well it insulated against heat.

Later, he met Zuko, who told him that he had been asking around the prison and there were no Water Tribe prisoners. Sokka at first became disheartened until he saw Suki in the yard. He and Zuko decided to go meet her and form an escape plan. Sokka went to Suki's cell while Zuko stood guard outside. At first, Suki did not recognize Sokka and punched him in the gut when he tried to kiss her. When his helmet fell off, Suki realized who it was and they embraced. He told her that he was here to bust her out of prison. She said how happy she was to see him and that she almost gave up hope that she would be saved. The two of them kissed.



Meanwhile, Zuko was caught by a guard. As Sokka was leaving the cell, he saw Zuko wrestling with her and helped the guard, knowing that they would have no chance of escape otherwise. He whispered to Zuko that he planned to meet him later. He met both Suki and Zuko later while they were on mopping duty. He told them that his plan for escape was to use the cooler as a boat to get off the island. He explained that the cooler made an ideal boat because of its way of insulating heat. He was overheard by Chit Sang who wanted in on the plan. The rest of them agreed and staged a fight between Chit Sang and Zuko to get Zuko in the Cooler to unbolt it. Later, Sokka met Zuko, who had unhooked it from its screws. While inside, they both heard that new prisoners would soon arrive. The two of them moved it to the lake with Suki. There, they met Chit Sang and his friends. They were all about to leave when Sokka, Zuko and Suki decided to stay behind to see if Hakoda was among them. Finally, after all of the prisoners had been unloaded, Sokka saw his father among them.

Sokka joined the line of guards in the yard while the warden interviewed the new prisoners. Sokka witnessed Hakoda's insolence and secretly chuckled. Later, he met Hakoda in his cell and said that he was glad to see he was okay. Hakoda did not recognize him due to his uniform, so Sokka took off his helmet. The two had a touching reunion. Hakoda told him where the other prisoners were, as well as that he met the Kyoshi Warriors. The two of them began planning a new escape attempt. Sokka then went to Zuko's cell before Zuko was taken away by the guards to see Mai. Sokka also visited Suki again, and told her his and his father's plan was to start a prison riot as a distraction and then to commandeer the gondola and take the warden hostage so they won't cut the line.



After he left Suki's cell, he was taken by the guards under orders from the warden. He was then put into a lineup with his mask off so that Chit Sang, who had been tortured by the warden after getting caught, could identify him. However, the prisoner identified another guard instead. Sokka went to the technician operating the doors and told him he had orders from the warden to let the prisoners into the yard. When the guard questioned him, Sokka only said that the warden was being angry and irrational. Frightened, the guard opened the doors.

Sokka met with Hakoda and Suki and told them that it was time to start a riot. After Hakoda failed in his attempt, Chit Sang met the three of them where he started one. They were joined shortly by Zuko. Suki climbed the wall up to the warden and took him prisoner while the others followed. The group made its way to the gondola and used the warden to get past the guards. As the gondola made its way across the lake, it was attacked by Azula and Ty Lee. When the two girls made their way to the roof, Zuko, Sokka, and Suki went up to meet them. While Suki fought Ty Lee, Sokka and Zuko dueled Azula.

During the fight, the warden managed to untie his handcuffs and yelled at the guards to cut the line to prevent the prisoners from escaping. Azula and Ty Lee fled the gondola so they wouldn't fall into the boining water below. Mai, however, attacked the guards that were cutting the line to save "the jerk who dumped her," referring to Zuko. After gondola made it across the lake, the group stole Azula's airship and traveled back to the Western Air Temple. Sokka and Zuko came back to the group and revealed that they had been to a Fire Nation prison, and when asked if they returned with meat, Sokka said that they had brought "the meat of friendship and fatherhood" and Hakoda, Suki, and Chit Sang stepped out of the airship.

The final battle


During the final battle of the War, Sokka, along with Toph and Suki, were in charge of destroying the Fire Nation airship fleet. After breaking in, Sokka, pretended to be the captain and ordered all the crew members to gather at the bomb bay to celebrate a birthday. After everyone reported to the bomb bay, Sokka released the floor, causing all of them to fall into the ocean below. He soon commanded the ship, causing it to destroy other warships in the process. As Sokka, Suki, and Toph ran to the top of the ship to safety, it broke in two, causing Suki to be left behind. As Sokka and Toph continued, they fell. Using his sword, he saved them both from death by breaking the fall, but hurt his leg in the process. As Sokka held on to Toph, who was hanging from the ship, with one arm, Fire Nation soldiers surrounded them. Sokka used his boomerang to hit some of the guards, along with his sword, resulting in the loss of his sword and boomerang. It proved futile, as more guards arrived in preparation to kill them. They were saved by a oncoming ship controlled by Suki. Sokka, Toph, and Suki managed to destroy all the air warships, ceasing the attack on the Earth Kingdom. Afterwards, Sokka, along with Toph and Suki, joined together to berate the now fallen Ozai and commented on how cool Aang looked fighting.

After the War
After Ozai was defeated, all the war prisoners were released, and Sokka and Katara were once again reunited with their father and Suki and the freed Kyoshi Warriors arrived in full uniform (Sokka mentioned he kind of missed Suki's face paint), accompanied by Ty Lee. He initially thought she was in disguise again and stepped in to warn Suki, but he was informed (to his shock) that Ty Lee bonded with the warriors in prison and later joined them.



Later, Sokka accompanied his companions to the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace and came up with the name of Earth King Kuei's plan for removing the Fire Nation colonies, calling it the "Harmony Restoration Movement." He was later seen in a green robe, along with Aang, Katara, Toph, Mai, Zuko, Suki, and Iroh at the Jasmine Dragon, all of whom except Aang were in similar Earth Kingdom clothes. Sokka made a painting to capture the moment, but everyone noted that it was extremely crude (Katara's "hair loopies" looked like Momo's ears, Zuko's hair was too spiky, Mai looked like a man, Iroh's belly was too round, and Suki was inexplicably firebending, to which Sokka replied that it looked more exciting). Only Toph, who of course couldn't see the painting, said, "Well, I think you all look perfect!" and everyone laughed.

During the year immediately subsequent to the War, Sokka joined Katara and Aang in the "Harmony Restoration Movement" to disassemble the Fire Nation colonies in service of Earth King Kuei. For reasons yet unknown, when the group met back up with Toph a year later, he left Aang and Katara's movement behind to pitch in and help prepare Toph's luckless first class of metabending students at Bei Fong Metalbending Academy to defend her school from a clash with a rival firebending class.