History of Sokka (Spring 100 AG)

Book 2: Earth


After leaving the Northern Water Tribe on Master Pakku's boat, Sokka and the others arrived at General Fong's Earth Kingdom base. Once Aang was told that the only way to win the war was to master the Avatar State, Sokka attempted to help by scaring him into the state. Unfortunately, it didn't work. When Fong attacked Aang in an attempt to trigger the Avatar State, Sokka mounted an Ostrich Horse and helped to defend him. He also knocked out the general, asking, "Anyone got a problem with that?" None of the soldiers did. When asked if they still needed an escort to Omashu, he and the others rejected the request.

Later, entering the Cave of Two Lovers, he was forced to deal with a group of laidback, easygoing nomads whom he found annoying with their consistent song playing. Upon arrival at Omashu, the group find it to have been captured by the Fire Nation. He assisted in the freeing of the citizens of Omashu by inventing a disease called "Pentapox". The group is forced to leave Omashu after Bumi tells Aang he will need to find a new Earthbending teacher.

The Swamp
Sokka, Katara and Aang were flying on Appa above a giant swamp. Aang stared at the swamp in a sort of hypnotic trance and started lowering themselves into the swamp. When Sokka started explaining what was happening to Aang, he came out of his "trance" and started telling Sokka and Katara that the swamp was "calling him." Sokka tried to convince Aang that there was nowhere to land and to move on, but Aang was still interested because of what King Bumi told him about listening to the Earth. Sokka, who was being usually stubborn, said to ignore it. Aang started to leave once Katara, Appa and Momo started to complain about the swamp. Unfortunately, an oddly located tornado came right toward the gang and they fell down with much force.



Aang, Katara and Sokka were separated from Appa and Momo due to landing in different places. The trio, led by Sokka, tried to find their animal friends with Sokka chopping everything in sight with his machete. Aang told Sokka that they should be "a little nicer to the swamp." Katara agreed with Aang, as she felt some supernatural qualities in the swamp. She claimed that it feels "alive". Sokka kept chopping around anyway. Aang said that the longer they stay there, the more he thought he shouldn't do that. Though Katara and Aang still believed something supernatural was going on in the swamp, Sokka dismissed their concerns. They later saw strange glowing eyes and got a little scared. The strange thing that was looking at Aang was shown again, still unseen. This time, it grabbed each of them in their sleep with its vines. They woke up and each managed to escape from the vines using their styles of fighting. The trio all ended up in separate places.

While wandering the swamp by himself, Sokka thought he saw Princess Yue. The illusion spoke to him in Yue's voice and said, "You didn't protect me." She left and Sokka standed there stunned. The trio was reunited and they reached the center of the swamp, which was a giant tree. Aang believed that the swamp was calling them there. All of a sudden, the giant monster who earlier had grabbed them appeared. Aang and Katara finally defeated the swamp monster, who was really a Waterbender bending the water in the vines that encased him to make the monster. He said the swamp was just one big tree, stretching out its roots for miles. He also said that the whole world was one organism like the swamp. If you listen carefully, he explained, then you can hear everything breathing together because everything is connected. He went on to explain each person's visions. In the swamp, people had visions of "people we've lost, people we've loved", though they were not really gone because everyone is connected. After the group found Momo and Appa, they left the Swamp.

Avatar Day


While in the Earth Kingdom village of Chin Village, the three kids learned of an annual holiday called "Avatar Day". They watched a parade with giant floats that were made to look like Kyoshi, Roku and Aang. The trio at first believed that the festival is honoring the Avatar, but then a man torched the three floats to the loud approval of the village, who chanted, "Down with the Avatar! Down with the Avatar!" Aang revealed himself as the Avatar, only to be arrested. While in his jail cell, the village's mayor explained to him that "Avatar Day" was formed after Avatar Kyoshi killed the village's leader, Chin the Great. Sokka then took up the job as Aang's detective. To prove Aang's (or rather, Kyoshi's) innocence, Sokka and Katara searched the village and returned to Kyoshi Island to find evidence that said otherwise. Unfortunately, the evidence was useless because in these trials, the opposing sides only told what they believe happened. Using only the two stories, the jury decided who was innocent and who was guilty; for this case, the village mayor served as both prosecution and jury.

During Aang's trial, after hearing the village mayor's story and Aang's vague version, he was found guilty. Refusing to give up, Sokka and Katara had Aang dress up in Kyoshi's old uniform. Kyoshi manifested herself through Aang and told the true story. Right afterwards, the town was attacked by the Rough Rhinos. The trio engaged the warriors in battle and was successful in driving them away, Sokka regaining his boomerang during the battle. In an act of thanks, the mayor decided that in the future, Avatars will be honored on "Avatar Day." Before they left, Sokka expressed his feelings that this was by far the worst town they've ever been to.

The Blind Bandit


The trio went to the town of Gaoling to continue the search for someone to teach Aang Earthbending. While searching, they heard from a pair of students about Earth Rumble VI, a Lei Tai tournament featuring several powerful Earthbenders. The boys were not very inclined to help Aang with the location until Katara used her "feminine charm", which involved freezing them to the walls, to convince them to tell.

At the tournament, they saw a powerful Earthbender named "The Boulder" who defeated every challenger he came across. Sokka completely got into it, but Aang was not very impressed, saying that the Boulder was "just listening to his muscles". The Boulder defeated several other contenders, working his way up to the current champion, The Blind Bandit. The Blind Bandit was a blind Earthbender who happened to be Toph, a 12 year-old girl. Aang noticed the Bandit's techniques, especially how she waited and listened carefully to the movements of her opponent, and realized that she was the type of person that Bumi said would make a good Earthbending teacher. After Toph helped Aang get away from kidnappers, she decided to come with them, but her father said no.

As Aang and the others got ready to leave, Toph ran up to them, saying that her father changed his mind, letting her travel with them. Sokka wisely offered to leave quickly before her father "changes his mind again." Toph was ready to go, but she wanted to show Aang one thing first. Aang hopped down, and she promptly launched him into a tree. Toph, declaring them even, demanded to have her championship belt returned. Sokka dropped the belt on her head expecting her to catch it, "forgetting" she was blind.

The Chase
Toph got along well with Sokka and Aang but her initial belief in thinking that her friends wanted to help her because she was blind caused a feud between Toph and Katara. The argument only got worse as they were chased around by a mysterious vehicle throughout the night, steadily depriving the group of sleep. The group made an initial stand against Azula, Mai and Ty Lee, where Sokka got insulted by Toph's logic of bending combat before escaping.

Even though Sokka was usually the person who complained the most, especially without sleep, it was Katara and Toph who were complaining about each other the most. When it was discovered that Appa's shed fur made a trail for the vehicle to follow, Sokka and Katara headed off with Appa and Momo in one direction while Aang and Toph went separate ways. Sokka soon spotted Mai and Ty Lee tracking them below but a tired Appa crash-landed to sleep forcing the Water Tribe siblings to make their stand. Sokka's limbs were incapacitated by Ty Lee's chi-blocking style (though Sokka got the last laugh as he headbutted Ty Lee's hands) while Katara became pinned down by Mai's shurikins. The siblings were saved by Appa, who covered Sokka in saliva.

Sokka, Katara and Toph came to Aang's rescue and, along with Zuko and Iroh, cornered Azula. But Iroh's momentary distraction at Toph gave Azula the opportunity to escape by wounding Iroh, forcing the rest to retaliate. After Zuko forces the group to leave him and the wounded Iroh, they found a safe place to sleep.

The Library
Each of the members of Aang's group decided to take a little "mini-vacation" as a way to unwind after all the work they had done; Sokka, on the other hand, thought the group should be working on getting intelligence on the Fire Nation, most specifically a map for when Aang must hunt down the Fire Lord. The group met Professor Zei, a professor at Ba Sing Se University, who told them he was searching for a legendary library said to be in the middle of a nearby desert. The library, said to have been created by the spirit of knowledge and his fox servants, had more valuable tomes than any other place in the world. Sokka, believing he may be able to get information on the Fire Nation there, dedicated his "vacation" to finding the place.

Using Appa to fly, the group soon found the library. They found it completely buried in the sand except for its single, highest tower. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Momo and Professor Zei used a window to enter the library; Appa stayed outside, of course, as did Toph, who cannot read since she is blind. Toph also mentioned that, because of the desert sand, she could not feel the vibrations in the ground as well as she normally can, making her lose her usual advantage.



When the group entered the library, they met the spirit, Wan Shi Tong, who constructed the library; taking the form of a large owl, the spirit initially did not trust them. The spirit, apparently, disliked the fact that humans only use knowledge to get an advantage over other humans; he brought up the last human to have discovered his library, who happened to beAdmiral Zhao (Zhao mentions a library during the Siege of the North ), and believed the group only wanted to get information to help them defeat their enemies (which is, actually, true). But, they convinced him otherwise.

Sokka found a burned paper that mentioned "the Fire Nation's darkest day;" it had a date but no other information. It also turned out that Zhao, before leaving, apparently destroyed every other bit of information about the Fire Nation, probably to prevent exactly what Sokka and the others were trying to do. However, a fox (one of Wan Shi Tong's animal helpers) found the group and leaded them to a room dedicated to astronomy. There, a date could be entered on a stone wheel, which then showed the heavens on that particular date; when Sokka entered the date of "the darkest day", it showed a solar eclipse occurring. The group realized that solar eclipses must weaken or take away the ability to Firebend in the same way lunar eclipses affect Waterbending; they realized they could use this information to plan an attack on the Fire Nation forces.

Soon, however, Wan Shi Tong found out their plans and decreeded that he will no longer allow humans to misuse his beloved information. He attacked the group and caused the library to begin to sink; that way, it will be completely underground forever. Aang and Sokka hurriedly tried to use the astronomy room to find the next date of a solar eclipse; it turned out the next one was in a few months. They planned to give this information to the Earth Kingdom armies of Ba Sing Se to help in the war. The group then quickly escaped, except for Professor Zei, who said he would rather spend eternity in the Library than see it vanish forever; the others had no choice but to leave him. They escaped before the Library vanished into the sand. Outside, Toph told Aang that Appa had been stolen by Sandbenders.

The Desert


While traveling though the desert, the group ran low on water. Sokka found a cactus plant with a liquid trapped inside. He and Momo, desperate for any thirst quencher, quickly drank the "Cactus Juice". Immediately, Sokka started hallucinating, saying things like, "Who lit Toph on fire?" and "How did we get out here in the middle of the ocean?" Aang created a giant mushroom cloud out of frustration from not finding Appa. Katara and Sokka saw the giant mushroom cloud from a few miles away and Sokka said, "It's a giant mushroom.... Maybe it's friendly!" followed by waving his arms back and forth and saying, "Friendly Mushroom. Mushy Giant Friend!" At night, Toph accidentally kicked a Sandbender's Sand-sailor and they used its compass to sail to a giant rock which happened to be the magnetic center of the desert. On the rock they found strange tunnels that were actually insect-buzzard hives. In the hives, Sokka claimed that his head has cleared out the cactus juice, only to eat some of the "honey" he found on the wall of the hive. They fought the insect-buzzards until the arrival of a Sandbender tribe. Toph recognized one of them as one who stole Appa and said he was going to muzzle him, prompting Aang to go into the Avatar State out of rage and grief and destroy all but one of the sailors.

The Serpent's Pass
After the group escaped the desert, they met a refugee family traveling to Ba Sing Se. The group helped the family to an underground ferry way that led to the city. While there, Sokka and the others were reunited with the Kyoshi Warrior, Suki, who was there helping war refugees. Later, the refugee family's documents were stolen, so Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka, and Suki agreed to help them cross the Serpent's Pass.



As the group traveled along a sheer cliff side of the pass, Suki pointed out Fire Nation forces patrolling the water, telling them that they were rumored to be working on a secret project. As they continued, Tahn fell when the ground under him crumbled. Toph saved him, but the falling rocks draw the attention of the patrol ship, which launched a fire ball at them. Aang leaped into action, knocking the ball back and striking their engines. The ship returned fire, hitting the rockface above them, and sending debris falling towards Suki. Sokka pushed Suki out of the way, and Toph saved him by deflecting the rocks. Sokka was too worried about Suki's safety to be thankful to Toph for saving his life, which annoyed Toph. The group ran to the shelter of an outcropping wall of rock, leaving the ship behind to tend to its damage.

That night, Sokka was becoming overprotective of Suki, insisting that she not sleep so close to the edge of the cliff in case it collapses to the water below. After he moved her sleeping mat he screamed and pushed her away from her mat. She inquired what was wrong; Sokka was calm and told her that he thought he saw a spider. Suki found Sokka staring at the moon. He explained that he was being so overprotective because of someone he lost (Yue) before at the North Pole. Suki told Sokka about someone she cared for and lost as well, although he only went away. Sokka started to get jealous, not realizing that she was talking about him. Suki moved in to kiss him, but Sokka, feeling guilty to kiss her in front of the moon, turned away. As the group got ready to depart, Suki got ready to return to her comrades, telling Sokka that she went with him to make sure that he got through safely. She tried to apologize to Sokka for coming on to him the night before, but he silenced her with a kiss. When the group came to Ba Sing Se and saw the giant drill, they turned to Sokka for ideas. Katara's words about how Ty Lee fights gave Sokka an idea to infiltrate the machine and destroy it from the inside, by hitting its pressure points. With Katara and Toph plugging up the slurry, and Aang giving the final blow, the drill was destroyed.

Ba Sing Se
Riding the Earth rail, the group finally entered Ba Sing Se. Sokka was confident that they will easily find Appa, but the city was much bigger than they imagined. Soon after they arrived, Aang and his friends were met by Joo Dee; a cheerful, incessantly smiling woman assigned to guide them around the city. Attempts by Sokka to try and get their guide to talk about the war and a possible audience with the Earth King were invariably ignored.



Katara made a plan to sneak with Toph into a party. Aang and Sokka eventually arrived (after Katara and Toph) at the palace and managed to get in through the side entrance disguised as servants. Aang was soon exposed as the Avatar, but he quickly smoothed things over with a display of his abilities to entertain the audience, until the Earth King himself arrived. Sokka was captured and dragged away by Dai Li guards as the Dai Li bound and gagged Katara and Toph with Earthbending. Inside Long Feng's chamber, Sokka tried to talk about the coming solar eclipse, but was abruptly cut off by Feng. To preserve the culture and utopian life within the walls of Ba Sing Se, Feng explained, no mention of the war was permitted. It was also revealed that Feng was in charge of handling day-to-day affairs in the city, including all military matters.

In the peaceful city, Sokka was outside his element of war and battle. His boomerang had become a toy as he walked through the city. Sokka found a haiku class full of pretty girls. While peeking through the window, enjoying the 'show', he was shoved from behind by an ostrich horse and winds up inside. While explaining the accident to the girls he accidentally rhymed in haiku. The instructor became upset with the intrusion and disruption of the class. She was also severely annoyed by the unsophisticated meaning his haiku messages entailed and thus educated Sokka in the art of poetry by addressing him with a formal haiku. Sokka soon got into a contest with the teacher, (which seemed to parody a rap battle) both of whom spoke only in haiku.

After each of Sokka's, the girls in the class broke into giggling. After several bouts, with Sokka comically winning each one, he eventually messed up and added an extra syllable to the final line, causing the class to become silent and hard faced. After counting the syllables and realizing his grave error, Sokka was ejected from the room by a very large guard into the street. Sokka changed his mind about liking poetry in the end.

Lake Laogai & The Earth King
At Aang's house, Sokka was attempting to draw pictures of Appa, but Aang and Katara bursted in with a stack of professionally-made posters they had a printer make featuring much better pictures of the lost bison than Sokka's crude drawings. The group planned on spreading the fliers all over the city, hoping someone will have some information.

Out in the city, the gang was setting up more posters when Katara ran into Jet. He told her that he wanted to help, but Katara distrusted him and attacked. Jet deflected her attacks and tried to prove his honesty by dropping his Hook Swords. The others arrived, drawn by the noise, and Jet tried again to explain himself. Then Jet showed them a flier. Toph, reading Jet's heartbeat and breathing patterns, pronounced that he was telling the truth.

On their way out, the group was sidetracked when Smellerbee and Longshot happen to come across them. Katara once again turned on Jet, as he had claimed to have left the gang behind. Jet insisted that he had been living alone in the city, but Smellerbee claimed that he was dragged away by the Dai Li. Toph realized they were both telling the truth, even though their stories didn't match. Sokka quickly figured that Jet had been brainwashed by the Dai Li.



The group made their way to Lake Laogai the next day and Toph quickly found and uncovered the underwater entrance. The gang found themselves confronted by Long Feng and several Dai Li agents. A battle quickly broke out. Jet hurled one of his hook swords at Long Feng, who dodged and retaliates with Earthbending. After dealing a grievous blow to Jet, Long Feng escaped as the others enteedr the chamber. Katara tried to heal Jet and realized just how badly he was injured. Longshot, speaking for the first time in the series, told Aang and his group that they should go and find Appa and leave Jet to Smellerbee and himself. Jet tried to assure Katara that he'll be fine, but as they left, Toph sorrowfully said that Jet was lying.

The group rushed back to the surface and was reunited with Appa. Less than an hour after the reunion with Appa, Sokka and his friends were on a small island recovering and discussing what they should do. Katara and Toph both wanted to leave Ba Sing Se, as they had found Appa and thus had no reason to remain there. On the other hand, Sokka wanted to stay to inform the Earth King of all that was taking place within Ba Sing Se, as well as the approaching solar eclipse, as this was their entire reason for heading to Ba Sing Se in the first place. Aang agreed with him. Ultimately, the others agreed to do so, and all four rode Appa back to Ba Sing Se's upper ring and managed to break into the palace, tearing their way through the Royal Guards despite a strong defense.

At the palace, Aang and his friends finally reached the Earth King's throne room. Aang went on to explain the various events going on that the Earth King was unaware of: a war outside Ba Sing Se's walls, Long Feng and the Dai Li's conspiracy, the imprisonment of Appa, and the brainwashing of Jet and countless other individuals. The Earth King arrived at the outer wall and was shocked to see the remains of the Fire Nation's drill leading right up to and through Ba Sing Se's outer wall. The Earth King ordered the Dai Li to arrest Long Feng. The two Dai Li agents accompanying Long Feng shared a conspiratorial glance and then bind Long Feng's arms with metal manacles. When they returned to the palace, he also agreed, after some persuasion to support Sokka's plan to invade the Fire Nation on the day of the solar eclipse (dubbed by Sokka The Day of Black Sun), when the Fire Nation will be helpless.

Father and Son Reunion


The Earth King's top generals, the Council of Five, raided Long Feng's office and discovered files about every person in Ba Sing Se. They found an intelligence report giving the location of Water Tribe warriors led by Hakoda, Sokka and Katara's father.

Aang and Sokka made their way over the plains surrounding Ba Sing Se on Appa, convinced that things were finally going positively for them. Aang and Sokka landed at the mouth of Chameleon Bay, where they were told that Sokka’s father Hakoda and the rest of the Southern Water Tribe Warriors were. Sokka was very nervous, but Aang tried to calm him down, and succeeded somewhat. Sokka questioned Aang on his feelings towards him meeting Guru Pathik to master the Avatar State. Aang smiled, and replied that he, unlike Sokka, was not nervous in the least. He then took off on Appa, shouting back to Sokka that they will reunite in a week.

Sokka walked into the base and was greeted with warm and welcome arms by the warriors of the Southern Water Tribe. After a very brief exchange of greetings, the warriors pointed him off to a tent. Sokka entered the tent, where several more warriors, including Bato and his father Hakoda, were studying a map. Hakoda looked up from the map and he and Sokka embraced happily.

Sokka, Hakoda, and the rest of the Warriors were preparing what Hakoda called Tangle Mines. Comprised of a buoyant casing around an explosive mine, they were filled with Skunkfish and Seaweed. Upon detonation, the seaweed entangled itself in propellers of Fire Nation ships, immobilizing them. Afterwards, the stench of the Skunkfish forced the soldiers on board to abandon ship. Hakoda joked that he had dubbed the plan, “The Stink and Sink,” to which Sokka exploded with laughter. Bato remarked dryly on how similar the father and son were.

A scouting party returned, informing the warriors of the presence of four Fire Nation ships. Hakoda quickly acted, telling Bato to finish preparing the mines and the rest of the warriors to prepare for battle. Sokka hesitated as the other warriors prepared for battle, and then asked Hakoda what he should do. In a slightly irritated, yet joking tone, Hakoda repeated pointedly that he wanted, "the rest of [the] men to get ready for battle". Sokka smiled at his father's confirmation of his coming-of-age and quickly prepared himself for the encounter ahead.

Sokka and the rest of Hakoda's warriors were finishing preparing their ships to move on. Sokka told his father that he was going to make him proud and prove what a great warrior he was. Hakoda smiled and replied that Sokka did not have to prove himself - he had always known Sokka had been a great warrior. This heart-felt moment was brought up short by the sudden appearance of Aang and Appa. Sokka only had to look at Aang for him to realize that the situation was urgent and bade farewell to his father.

Fall of Ba Sing Se


Sokka and Aang hurried back to Ba Sing Se on Appa; as they flew along, they spotted Toph who was trying to get back to the Palace as quickly as she could. They picked her up and flew to Ba Sing Se, trying to get there quickly to see if Katara was all right. When asked if he had mastered the Avatar State, Aang lied to the others, saying that he had.

Outside the Palace, the gang discovered that there was indeed a huge underground city and decided that Toph and Sokka should go to warn the Earth King about the coup while Iroh and Aang rescue Katara and Zuko. Sokka and Toph soon saw General How, but before they could say anything, the Dai Li placed him under house arrest. At that very moment, every general was arrested. The two made it into the Throne Room and they revealed to the Earth King that the girls were not Kyoshi Warriors. Upon seeking Sokka, Ty Lee started to flirt with him, but he said that he was involved with Suki. Ty Lee did not know who Suki was, which exposed them and Toph threw her to the side with Earthbending. Mai, realizing that their identities were exposed, threw a hail of ornate shurikens at Toph, who blocked them with a wall of earth. Ty Lee began to “fight” Sokka. However, the fighting was in vain, as Azula soon had the King at flamepoint. Sokka and Toph gave up immediately and were soon disabled by Ty Lee. They were imprisoned by Dai Li agents, but were later able to escape with Toph using her Metalbending skills to free them from their prison cell.

Back in the Palace, Ty Lee was trying to teach Bosco the Bear how to walk on his front legs, but she was trapped by Toph. Toph and Sokka took a fighting stance against Mai, who in her nonchalance said to take the bear and the King reunited happily with his pet. The three later reunited with Katara and Aang, after Aang was struck with lightning by Azula during a battle in the Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se. As the Earth King, Bosco, Momo, Toph, Sokka, Katara, and Aang flew atop Appa's back over the Outer Wall and out of the city, the Earth King looked back and sadly proclaimed, "The Earth Kingdom... has fallen."