Sokka's History
Early life
Sokka was born at the South Pole to Chief Hakoda and Kya in 84 AG. Growing up as part of a minor tribe that lived in the remains of the Southern Water Tribe's ruined capital, Sokka was raised from a young age to be a warrior and possessed much knowledge of Water Tribe weapons and tactics. When he was ten, Sokka witnessed one of the last major Fire Nation raids on his tribe, during which his mother was targeted and killed, leaving him with great hatred for the Fire Nation.
When his father left with the other men of the tribe to fight in the Hundred Year War, Sokka was put under his Gran Gran's care and became his tribe's last defense. He took the task seriously, building a number of snow watchtowers around the village and even "training" the young children of the village as soldiers. Although Sokka had the spirit of a warrior and the courage to stand up to any enemy, he initially lacked the skills and techniques that would make him a formidable opponent. That would not stop him from trying, though, especially if his friends needed help. He was protective of his younger sister and treasured the boomerang given to him by his father.
During his travels with Aang, Sokka improved his skills significantly and evolved into a skilled fighter with a sword forged from meteorite metal. He became a true leader and a cunning strategic planner.
Winter 99 AG
While on a fishing expedition for their village, Sokka and his younger sister Katara accidentally steered their canoe into a rip current, where it was crushed between ice floes. Subsequently, the duo found a mysterious figure trapped in a large spherical ice block. The figure introduced himself as Aang, an airbender, and offered to escort them home on his flying bison Appa. After their village was attacked by soldiers on a Fire Nation ship commanded by Prince Zuko, Katara learned that Aang was the Avatar and eventually managed to persuade her brother to help him. She and her brother set out to save Aang, who had himself purposefully arrested to save the village. After their successful rescue, the three began their journey to the North Pole together with the intent of finding a waterbending master who would teach the Avatar and Katara the secrets of waterbending. During their journey to the Northern Water Tribe, the group stopped in several locations in the now war-torn Earth Kingdom. Their first stop was the Southern Air Temple, where Sokka and the rest of Team Avatar learned of the genocide of the Air Nomads. Next, the team stopped on Kyoshi Island, where Sokka met Suki, with whom he at first had a difficult relation because of his views on gender roles; however, Suki helped Sokka begin to challenge these notions. On Kyoshi Island, they were ambushed by the banished prince and barely managed to escape. After leaving Kyoshi Island, Aang, Katara, and Sokka flew to the great Earth Kingdom city of Omashu, where they were brought before the elderly king of the city who treated them like royalty and threw them a feast before imprisoning them and held Sokka and Katara hostage. It was later revealed that this was none other than Bumi, a childhood friend of Aang.
Before reaching the Northern Water Tribe, the trio encountered several other adventures, all the while being chased by both Zuko and his uncle Iroh, and Commander (later Admiral) Zhao of the Fire Navy. Among their missions, Sokka and Team Avatar helped the villagers of Senlin Village who were being attacked by a spirit called Hei Bai, where Sokka was taken to the Spirit World; barely escaped the clutches of Zhao and Prince Zuko, where Katara lost her mother's necklace; discovered the darker side of the resistance when they came into contact with Jet and his Freedom Fighters who tried to destroy the neighboring village of Gaipan and kill all the Fire Nation civilians living there before Sokka's intervention; helped two warring tribes, the Zhang and the Gan Jin, to cross the Great Divide and to reconcile; saved Makapu Village from the eruption of its volcano; reunited with his father's friend and fellow warrior Bato, with whom Sokka completed his ice dodging coming-of-age ritual; met Jeong Jeong, who unsuccessfully tried to teach Aang the basics of firebending; and met and saved the refugees who lived in the Northern Air Temple from a Fire Nation military force led by War Minister Qin, among them Teo and his father, the mechanist, with whom Sokka formed a deep bond due to their mutual interest in technology.
After reaching the Northern Water Tribe, Team Avatar was greeted as honored guests by Chief Arnook at a banquet, where Sokka met Princess Yue and fell in love with her. Even though she reciprocated his affections, their romance was not possible, as Yue had already been betrothed to Hahn, with whom Sokka formed a deep-rooted rivalry. During the Siege of the North, Sokka proved vital in the defense of the city, instructing an elite group of Water Tribe warriors how to infiltrate the Fire Nation ships, even though he himself was not allowed to participate in the fight because Arnook instructed Sokka to stay back and protect Yue. Sokka later helped Katara and Yue search for Aang after he was abducted by Zuko. Their friend was eventually found and brought back to the Spirit Oasis with an unconscious Zuko, where he could return from the Spirit World, though they found that the Moon Spirit had been mortally wounded by Zhao. While Aang fused with La and attacked the Fire Nation armada, Yue sacrificed herself to give the koi fish the part of its life force that was inside her. She became the reincarnation of Tui, the Moon Spirit, and gave Sokka one final kiss as she faded away and restored the balance of the spirit.
Spring 100 AG
Sokka and the rest of Team Avatar traveled to the Earth Kingdom, where they planned on searching for an earthbending teacher for Aang. At an Earth Kingdom fortress, General Fong contradicted their original plan and tried to coax Aang into using the Avatar State to assist in an invasion of the Fire Nation. Sokka initially agreed and helped Fong in his endeavor, but the general's fort was destroyed in Aang's uncontrolled Avatar State, and the team chose to leave their military escort. During their return to Omashu, Team Avatar met with the laidback nomads Chong, Lily, and Moku, who annoyed Sokka with their go-with-the-flow attitude. Even so, Sokka traveled together with them out of necessity when they passed through a cave and reached Omashu, only to find that the city had fallen to the Fire Nation. In the city, it was revealed that King Bumi had voluntarily surrendered to the Fire Army, and Team Avatar barely managed to escape Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. Later, the team got stuck in the Foggy Swamp, where each member experienced hallucinations, which took the form of Yue for Sokka. Afterward, they visited Chin Village, where Aang was placed under arrest for a supposed crime of Avatar Kyoshi, and it fell upon Katara and Sokka to prove Aang's innocence. Although the siblings failed in their endeavor, Aang was spared when the team helped save the village from the Rough Rhinos. After the earthbender Toph Beifong joined the group to become Aang's earthbending teacher, Sokka and the team barely escaped the clutches of Azula when she chased after them in a high-speed tank train. Along with the rest of the team and Professor Zei of Ba Sing Se University, Sokka visited Wan Shi Tong's library, where he learned that an eclipse would occur in the Fire Nation that summer, which proved to be vital information in the war effort.
After barely surviving the Si Wong Desert after Appa's kidnapping at the hands of tribesmen, Sokka and Team Avatar helped an expectant family to cross the Serpent's Pass and reach the safety of Ba Sing Se. In the Earth Kingdom's capital, Sokka firstly helped to thwart another of War Minister Qin's plans by helping destroy the Fire Nation drill, after which Team Avatar was welcomed into the city as honored guests, though they were denied a meeting with the Earth King. The team used their free time to get some much-needed rest, where Sokka intruded in on a refined women's poetry club called the Five-Seven-Five Society before being thrown out. Eventually, Team Avatar resumed their search for Appa and eventually found him in the clutches of the Dai Li, a secretive organization under the leadership of Long Feng, who had complete control over the city and was using Earth King Kuei as a puppet.
Team Avatar managed to subdue the Dai Li and began to plan the invasion of the Fire Nation in cooperation with the Council of Five. Sokka visited his father Hakoda to tell him about the invasion and to enlist the help of the Southern Water Tribe's forces, but a coup led by Azula hindered these plans when Aang arrived on Appa and informed Sokka that his sister was in trouble. Sokka and Toph encountered Azula and her team in the Earth King's audience chamber, where Sokka fought Ty Lee, but resistance proved futile when Azula held a flame to the Earth King's throat. Sokka and Toph surrendered and were soon disabled by Ty Lee. They were imprisoned by Dai Li agents, but were later able to escape with Toph using her newfound metalbending skills. Sokka, Toph, and the Earth King reunited with Katara and Aang after the Avatar was mortally wounded with lightning by Azula during a battle in the Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se. However, Katara was able to heal him with spirit water. With the Earth Kingdom's capital now fallen to the Fire Nation, Team Avatar flew away on Appa.
Summer 100 AG
After Team Avatar and their allies stole a Fire Nation cruiser, Sokka and the rest of Team Avatar traveled to the Fire Nation, where they disguised themselves as ordinary citizens while making plans for the invasion on the Day of Black Sun. Among several adventures in the Fire Nation, Sokka and his friends helped students of a Fire Nation school to learn how to have fun and how to express themselves, and helped the impoverished villagers of Jang Hui clean their river from a nearby factory's pollution. Feeling little worth to the group as a nonbender, Sokka decided to train in the art of swordsmanship with Piandao, with whom he forged his own sword using ore from a recently fallen meteorite. When the day of the invasion arrived, Sokka and the rest of the team met with their allies and started to stealthily advance toward the capital via waterbending-powered submarines designed by the mechanist, based on Sokka's own idea. During the eclipse, the invasion advanced steadily toward the innermost Caldera City, with Aang reaching the Fire Nation Royal Palace to find it abandoned. Revealing that the invasion had been anticipated, Sokka, Toph, and Aang attempted to find Ozai in an underground bunker, but found only Azula. The princess managed to taunt Sokka by revealing that she had imprisoned Suki, stalling the group long enough that the eclipse passed them by. After escaping, the invasion force decided to retreat, with Team Avatar and their young allies taking to the Western Air Temple to avoid capture.
After Zuko joined their cause at the Western Air Temple, he and Sokka infiltrated the Boiling Rock where he believed his father was being held hostage. Sokka discovered that Suki was being held prisoner there instead. He initially decided to escape the prison with Suki and Zuko, but chose to wait to see if Hakoda would be transferred to the facility, which he was. Father and son started their escape attempt with Suki, Zuko, and Chit Sang, and managed to escape the prison after battling Azula. Sokka later separated from his father once more when Azula attacked the Western Air Temple with a fleet of airships, and split from the others with the rest of Team Avatar. When Sozin's Comet arrived, Sokka, Toph, and Suki managed to successfully destroy the Fire Nation airship fleet. After Ozai was stripped of his bending by Aang, Sokka and the others arrived on the scene to mock the former Fire Lord and congratulate their friend. Following the battle, Zuko was crowned as Fire Lord, and Sokka and Katara were reunited with their father once again. Sokka later joined his friends in the Jasmine Dragon in Ba Sing Se, where they all celebrated their hard-won victory.
100 AG - 102 AG
In the year following the war's conclusion, Team Avatar helped Fire Nation colonials resettle in their homeland in what was known as the Harmony Restoration Movement. Although the newer colonies easily complied, the city of Yu Dao resisted, as citizens of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation heritage had been living aside one another for generations. While in the city, Sokka visited Toph, who had founded an academy for new metalbenders. He met her students, Ho Tun, Penga, and The Dark One, but they had not yet learned to metalbend. Sokka arbitrated in Toph's dispute with Master Kunyo over the school's ownership, and encouraged her students to start metalbending against Kunyo's students on the day that a battle began outside the walls of Yu Dao. As the battle began, Sokka and Toph joined up with Suki and tried to disable the tundra tanks for as long as it took for Aang to diffuse the situation so that Zuko and the Earth King could come to an agreement. Empathizing with his friend's sisterly problems, Sokka went with Zuko to assist him against Azula.
Sokka later traveled to the Fire Nation Capital at Zuko's invitation, agreeing to his request to accompany him on his search for his mother. He, Aang, and Katara were shocked to see Azula standing free and apparently escaped, but Zuko explained that she was coming with them in exchange for information about Ursa. On the journey to Hira'a, Sokka battled Azula during one of her psychotic episodes and also fought against the mysterious wildlife, such as a giant wolf spirit. After the team camped, they headed to town, where they met Noren, Noriko, and Kiyi. Noren gave them the idea to head to Forgetful Valley in search of Ursa's childhood love, Ikem. The group was attacked by the wildlife in the valley, though it stopped once Katara realized the attacks were coming from waterbenders, namely Misu and her brother Rafa. Eventually, the team met the Mother of Faces and, after initial conflict, she calmed and revealed that Noriko was Ursa with a new face and memories and that Noren had once been Ikem. Sokka chased after Azula after she learned of this and tried to threaten her mother and her new family, and ended up crashing through the roof of Noren's house while battling Azula. The princess ended up escaping and Sokka reunited with Katara and Aang, questioning her motives for leaving a letter behind. Weeks after Ursa's face and memories had been restored, Sokka helped escort an anxious Ursa and her family back to the Fire Nation Capital. In order to save Toph and the others who were trapped in the mine, Sokka got Team Beifong to help him.
When peace talks in Yu Dao came to an end, Sokka traveled there to celebrate the election of the new coalition government at a banquet. While there, he agreed to come with Aang and the Air Acolytes to celebrate Yangchen's Festival in the Yue Bay area, even though he wanted to shop in the city. Sokka participated in the Air Nomad rituals and joined the group in visiting the Earthen Fire Refinery after they discovered a small industrial town in the area. Sokka mostly supported the area's industralization, but was shocked to learn that the co-owner of the refinery was Toph's father, Lao Beifong. After Lao ordered the Rough Rhinos to escort Team Avatar off the premises, Sokka battled against them. Eventually, he and his sister retreated to an unstable mine. Realizing that the mine was about to collapse, Sokka rushed back to Lao Beifong to inform him of the situation. With Toph trapped in the mine, Sokka hurried back to Yu Dao on Appa and brought Ho Tun, Penga, and The Dark One to the town. After everyone in the mine was saved by the metalbenders, Aang returned from a meditation session and ordered the area to be returned to its natural state, including the destruction of the refinery. While trying to evacuate, Sokka engaged in a brief skirmish with the Rough Rhinos, which was interrupted with the approach of General Old Iron. Katara saved Sokka and the others from the ancient spirit on a water spout, in spite of Sokka's ingratitude. He returned to the area to celebrate the Spirits' Friendship Festival three months later. Around this time, he and Suki visited Toph's academy and helped her regain her passion for teaching after Toph's boredom of the monotony of her life.
Sokka and Katara traveled to Ba Sing Se for some time afterward, where they prepared to return to the South Pole for the first time since they left home. Sokka was impressed to find that his village had grown into an urbanized city due to the efforts made in the Southern Reconstruction Project. The siblings reunited with their father, grandmother, and step-grandfather, and met the leaders of the redevelopment project, Maliq and Malina, who had come from the North. After Malina was robbed at a restaurant, Sokka and Katara chased the thieves to an abandoned ship, where Gilak and Thod explained that he believed that all foreigners, especially Northerners, must be banished from the South, as they had made their tribe weak. The siblings escaped the ship and made their way back to the city, where they were surprised to find that their father and Malina were in a romantic relationship. Sokka later followed Malina to a new factory that was being constructed with the help of Earthen Fire Industries, and the siblings were glad to be reunited with Toph, who had come as the company's representative. The team met up with Aang at a festival that evening, but Gilak's Southern nationalists attacked at the event and stabbed Hakoda. Even though they discovered that Maliq and Malina had been planning to take the South's oil to the North, Sokka was sure that the Southern Reconstruction Project was still beneficial to their home. At an international conference about funding the project, Gilak's soldiers managed to kidnap the Earth King. Sokka proposed a plan that the benders should wear chainmail under winter clothing to protect themselves against chi blocking, which was used at the skirmish at the Bridge of No Return. After Gilak's death, Sokka comforted Katara at Kya's grave before they shared a meal with their friends at their grandmother's igloo.
While traveling to Yu Dao, Toph suggested that Team Avatar should stop by her father's factory. The group was surprised to find that the settlement had grown into a small, sprawling city called Cranefish Town, a name which irritated Sokka. They soon found that the city was plagued with problems, such as turf wars between bender gangs and an increasing social divide between benders and nonbenders. After Lao proposed a ban on public bending, the factory suffered an explosion, and he and the others investigated Councilwoman Liling as the likely culprit. He and Suki met up shortly after, and after Toph found out that Liling was hosting a bender supremacist rally, he encouraged them to go along and observe. Toph tried to arrest Liling at the rally, and during the ensuing fight, Sokka asked Liling's nonbender daughter Ru how she could support her mother's policies. Liling was captured and kept in a cage, and Toph proposed that Aang take her bending away. Sokka did not support the suggestion, as the situation was more complicated than Liling being the only malefactor, and unlike Fire Lord Ozai, she was merely a civilian. Later, Sokka and Suki were defeated by Yaling, who freed her mother from captivity. When Suki trained many nonbenders to chi block while preparing to hold back Liling, she and Sokka convinced Ru to turn against her mother. Sokka fought in the final confrontation against the bender supremacists, knocking out Yaling with his boomerang after she managed to stun Toph. After Liling and Yaling's arrest, Team Avatar resolved to stay in Cranefish Town due to a special connection they felt with the city, helping it prosper into a metropolis later known as Republic City.
Later life
Sokka, serving as the Southern Water Tribe representative and chairman of the United Republic Council, was bloodbent by Yakone.
By the age of forty-three, Sokka served as the Southern Water Tribe representative on the United Republic Council as well as the Council's chairman. In his function as spokesman, Sokka sentenced Yakone, with consensus from the rest of the Council, to life in prison for his crimes. In response, Yakone bloodbent him and everyone else inside the City Hall courtroom.
In 124 AG, Sokka wrote down the story of how he "singlehandedly saved the world" during the final stages of the Hundred Year War to include in a book that Aang was assembling for his son, Tenzin. In his letter, Sokka advised his nephew not to depend solely on airbending since reflexes and strategy are equally important skills to develop.
Sometime after 128 AG, Sokka became a chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe. In 158 AG, a group of powerful benders known as the Red Lotus, led by Zaheer, a nonbender at the time, attempted to kidnap Korra, the new Avatar. Sokka, along with Zuko, Tenzin, and Korra's father, Tonraq, thwarted the kidnapping attempt and saved the young Avatar.
To commemorate his legacy, a statue of him holding his boomerang aloft was erected in front of the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center.
Sokka died sometime between 158 and 170 AG.
