Sokka

**Sokka** is a seventeen-year-old Water Tribe warrior raised by his grandmother Kanna along with his younger sister Katara in the Southern Water Tribe.

## Biography

### Early life

He was born, like most people of the Southern Water Tribe, without the ability to bend, raised from a young age to be a warrior. He has a great knowledge of Water Tribe weapons and tactics. When he was young, his mother was killed in a Fire Nation raid. Several years after the tragedy, his father, along with all the other warriors, left the Southern Water Tribe to fight in the War. He was left in the care of his grandmother and little sister, and built some crude defenses for what remained of his tribe. As a result, Sokka was the oldest non-elderly male in the South Pole.

### Discovering the Avatar

Sokka was seventeen years old when the story began - his sister Katara was practicing her waterbending by lifting a sphere of water which she accidentally dropped on him. Katara accompanied Sokka hunt for food for their tribe. Out at the vast open field of ice, Katara noticed something glowing directly beneath her feet. Sokka used his boomerang to crack the floor open but the cracks expanded and started a cave-in so he ran away from it with Katara. A large ice sphere emerged from the cracks with a silhouette of a person inside it.

The ice sphere broke part after Katara cracked it with Sokka's boomerang, shooting a bright light high to the sky, which caught the attention of the eighteen-year-old Prince Zuko on a faraway ship. In the resulting ice crater, Katara and Sokka discovered a thirteen-year-old boy, alive but exhausted, with his large six-legged bison creature. When the boy was kidnapped by the Fire Nation, Sokka figured that they were looking for someone old, but soon realized that the boy was who they wanted. As Katara pleaded with Sokka to help her save the boy, the bison creature floated in the air as if wanting to follow his master, but was held back out of concern of the children hanging dangerously off his feet. Sokka thought of a plan to use the flying bison to rescue the boy.

### Imprisoned

As Aang was a last surviving airbender, Sokka asked him if he was also the Avatar. Before Aang could respond, a young boy burst out of the woods and sought refuge with the trio from the Fire Nation soldiers chasing him. He was being arrested for earthbending, as it was forbidden in his village. Katara and Sokka refused to turn the young boy over to the soldiers. Katara popped open her water pouch and bent the water at the soldiers, but the water trapped Sokka's arms and chest in ice instead, much to his frustration. The soldiers promptly arrested Sokka, Katara, Aang and the young earthbending boy.

As the Fire Nation soldiers surrounds them to take them out - Sokka moved in to protect the two, calling on the others to help them. After the fight began, Sokka took down the lead soldier while Aang took out another. After a few more airbending moves from Aang and a boomerang attack thrown by Sokka, the remaining soldiers retreated. When Aang that the

next element he is going to learn is water, Sokka suggested that they travel to the Northern Water Tribe, which was on the other side of the world, as his father told him about powerful waterbenders there who may be able to teach Aang. Sokka also suggested they visit the small villages occupied by the Fire Nation along the way to start a change in the war. The group of Aang, Sokka, Katara, Momo, and Appa set out on the journey to the north.

### Fear of being followed

Although the trio tried to stay out of sight, Sokka became concerned that they were being followed. When Katara filled Sokka in on Aang's plan to visit the Northern Air Temple, Sokka was against it, and urged Katara to talk him out of it. After he woke up from his sleep, Sokka saw Aang took off. She assured Sokka that Aang will back in a day, but Sokka was concerned the Fire Nation might catch him.

### The Siege of the North

When Sokka entered the Northern Water Tribe city, he saw the princess for the first time and fell in love with her. So much that when Master Pakku insisted on a guard to be with Princess Yue at all times, Sokka volunteered for the assignment. in the following weeks, Sokka and Princess Yue spent a lot of time together. They went over to the fort walls for the ocean view. Yue expressed her wish to spend time in the Southern Water Tribe, where there is safety for everyone. Yue revealed to Sokka that her she was a stillborn baby. Her parents prayed to the Moon spirit for days, and when she woke up, her hair turned white and has remained that way ever since.

After Aang was rescued by Katara, she, Sokka and Yue burst into the spiritual place, only to find Zhao getting ready to kill the Moon Spirit's mortal form. When the Moon Spirit is successfully eliminated, Iroh noticed that Yue has been anointed by the spirit, to which Yue acknowledged. Iroh pleaded to Yue to give the life given to her as a child, back to the spirit. Sokka, at the thought of losing Yue, begged her not to, but Yue was convinced that sacrificing her life to save her people was meant to be. She gave Sokka a final kiss and entered into the pond. All that remains after that is her lifeless body, where Sokka started grieving over it. After Aang successfully defeated the Fire Nation armada, Sokka helped an exhausted Aang down the stairs into the courtyard with his sister. He subsequently bowed to Aang alongside his sister and the entire Northern Water Tribe.

## Abilities

Not having bending abilities himself, Sokka instead prefers the ways of the warrior and the scientist. He takes his responsibility as protector very seriously. He is proficient in a boomerang and can use it against the enemy.

## Personality

Sokka is skeptical and abrasive, "sexist" and "immature". He is always sharp-witted. Detached from Katara's and Aang's pursuit of the bending arts, he openly expresses his "bender envy". Initially, he does not seem to believe in the bending arts, calling Katara's "baby bender".

The appearance of the Avatar seems to change his mind. Sokka can become serious when he wants to or when need arises and is very protective of his sister. Patriotic and long to hold a grudge, he strongly wants to extract vengeance for the Fire Nation's decimation of the Water Tribe and the death of his mother. He holds little interest in the mysticism surrounding bending and prefers to solve problems using his strength and his wits. He tends to be rash, however, and his pride often leads to embarrassment. When Sokka has been humiliated, his versatility makes for a heartfelt apology and changing of his ways. He also is a little more sensitive, as shown at Yue's death.

## Relationships

### Allies

* Aang - Friend
* Princess Yue - Love Interest
* Appa - Friend
* Momo - Friend
* Kanna

### Enemies

* Fire Nation
	+ Prince Zuko
	+ Uncle Iroh
	+ Commander Zhao
	+ Lord Ozai
	+ Princess Azula

## Trivia

* Sokka's weapon has the function of both a club and a boomerang.
* Sokka's name in *The Last Airbender* is pronounced as "Soh-ka" instead of "Saw-ka" as it is in the TV series. This is identical to how Hahn pronounced Sokka's name in "The Siege of the North, Part 1".
* His warrior's wolf tail is longer in the film, contrasted in the show as being shorter, and he has green eyes, unlike his animated counterpart's blue eyes.
* He is less comedic than he was in the show. Sokka's characterization and depiction was closer to the episodes "Jet" and possibly "Bato of the Water Tribe". He has some funny moments but is much more serious, level-headed, and responsible.
* Sokka is well versed in most, if not all, Water Tribe weapons.
* Sokka is more perceptive than his cartoon counterpart. He stated that it cannot be a coincidence that Katara broke Aang out of the ice, light shoots into the sky and now the Fire Nation arrived to the South Pole instantly. Also, Katara narrated that Sokka became concerned that the trio were being followed when he noticed the smoke behind the trees, like in "The Chase" episode.
* It was Sokka's idea to go to the North Pole so that Aang and Katara can learn waterbending, as opposed to Aang suggesting it right after penguin sledding in "The Boy in the Iceberg".
* Even though going to the North Pole is the Team Avatar's top priority, Sokka suggested stopping by small Earth Kingdom villages on the way to start a rebellion by building up support from the inside. Unlike in the series, he was usually the one to go against it, as the Earth Kingdom never really happened in those situations, only in the "Imprisoned" episode in Book One. As shown in that episode, the earthbenders can already fend for themselves and started the rebellion on their own without the trio's assistance.
* Sokka was fifteen in the show, but seventeen in the movie.

 References

1. 'Last Airbender' carries Shyamalan into new territory
2. 'Last Airbender' release moved up one day
3. 'LAST AIRBENDER' STAR NOAH RINGER JOINS 'COWBOYS AND ALIENS' CAST
4. Shyamalan lines up his cast for 'The Last Airbender'