It’s time to talk about Avatar: The Last Airbender again! And this time, we’re looking at a character that’s both popular and yet still deserves more love from fans. Of course, I’m talking about Sokka. When you think of Sokka, your first thought is probably “oh, the meat and sarcasm guy.” Or maybe you think about the time he hallucinated after having cactus juice. But whatever you remember about Sokka, I think we can all agree that he’s a character you won’t forget anytime soon.

What I really love about Sokka is his progression throughout the series. He may have started out as mostly a comic relief character, but we got to see him grow and progress into a strong and brilliant warrior. He’s still a pretty hilarious guy, but he’s also got more confidence and skills to back up what he says. He can make you laugh if you’re a friend, and he can end you if you’re an enemy.

What’s also interesting about Sokka is that of the original “Gaang,” he was the only non-bender (tough Suki joins them later). But even though Sokka doesn’t have any bending abilities, he’s got a lot of other skills that end up being incredibly helpful. Many people underestimated Sokka, who then proved them wrong in fantastic ways. Aang may be the Avatar, but Sokka’s got quite a few talents that Aang doesn’t have. So here are 20 things Sokka can do that Aang can’t. Let’s have some fun with our favorite boomerang guy. Think we missed some good facts about Sokka? Make sure to let us know in the comments section below!

20 The Work Of An Inventor

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I think a lot of people forget that Sokka has invented several handy gadgets. First of all, he helped solve the problem with the air ships that an engineer hadn’t been able to figure out. He’s also helped craft some intricate explosives, and he helped the Mechanist develop submarine.

What’s cool about this is that Sokka knows his stuff about science. He’s able to look at a technology problem and figure out what to do pretty quickly. This kid is a lot smarter than he gives himself credit for, and it shows every time he gets involved with technology. Keep on inventing, Sokka!

19 The Way Of The Sword

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It’s known that Sokka is pretty decent with various weapons, and one skill he develops significantly is sword fighting. There’s even a whole episode in season 3 dedicated to Sokka training with a sword master to become better at it, and he proves to be a great swordsman. And throughout the rest of that season, we see Sokka use those skills in impressive ways.

Now compare to Aang. Aang doesn’t really fight with weapons in general besides his staff. If you put a sword in his hands, he would probably be awkward with it. Aang may have airbending, but Sokka’s got him beat in sword fighting.

18 Who Knew He Was A Blacksmith?

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Sokka has been known to be pretty inventive and is often making all kinds of gadgets to help him out in fighting. Hey, you need all the help you can get when you’re traveling with a bunch of benders. But one really impressive thing he does is that he makes his own sword.

The fact that Sokka made his own sword is seriously impressive. 

Blacksmithing isn’t easy. So, either Sokka had some talent for it, or he really learned a lot from Master Piandao. Either way, Sokka shows to be pretty adept in forging his own sword out of a meteorite. This guy has some serious skills that he doesn’t get enough credit for.

17 He’s The Guy With A Plan

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Sokka is always known as the guy with a plan. Whether that’s true or not, you have to admit that Sokka is a great strategist. He’s a quick thinker and is often the one who sees the details other people miss. Combine that with his ingenuity and he can come up with some creative plans.

And as the show progresses, we see Sokka develop from just the guy with a plan to a guy who orchestrated the whole Day of the Black Sun invasion. The only reason that attack didn’t succeed was because of Azula. And in the final battle, he comes up with a plan to take down the entire Fire Nation fleet in one swoop.

16 A Way With Words

Via: reddit.com

You wouldn’t think Sokka would have a talent for something like poetry, but we see otherwise in the episode “Tales of Ba Sing Se.” Sokka stumbles upon a group of women reciting haikus and discovers he has quite the talent for them. He even has a haiku battle with the head of the group and almost wins.

We never see another reference to Sokka’s poetry skills, but it is a rather fun and random talent he has. And while we don’t know if Aang has this kind of talent, we can probably assume that Sokka is alone in this hobby. I wonder if he ever went back to that group?

15 It’s All About The Boomerang

via: youtube.com

Sokka has impressive skills with a variety of weapons, but the one he’s probably the most proficient in is his boomerang. He often refers to himself as “just a guy with a boomerang.” It started out as a bit of a comedic tool, but we see Sokka demonstrate some impressive skills with his trusty boomerang.

He's got the skills with the boomerang. 

He’s also incredibly accurate with this weapon. He’s hit targets from complicated angles. For example, he managed to hit Combustion Man right in the head purely from estimating where the life-taker would be. Basically, you don’t want to mess with this guy when he’s got his boomerang.

14 He Knows You’re Lying

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We may laugh at Sokka’s antics, but the guy is pretty sharp. He tends to see things other miss, and this includes people. Sokka isn’t the most trusting person (can you blame him?), so he tends to be a bit paranoid when it comes to people. But in quite a few cases when Sokka felt something was off, he was usually right.

For example, he was the one to sense something was off with Jet, even though Aang and Katara had no problem with him. And while his paranoia isn’t always right, Sokka has helped out the gang with his suspicions. He is pretty good at spotting when someone is lying, and he doesn’t even have Toph’s abilities!

13 He’s The Real Combustion Man

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Sokka has made a lot of cool things. He helped develop the airships that you see in season 3. But one that we don’t think about that much is the fact that he can make and has worked with a few different types of explosives. Yep, Sokka has made bombs, quite a lot actually.

He took his father’s water bomb invention and ran with it, using it in during the invasion. And he used his knowledge of explosives to stop the Fire Nation from invading the Northern Air Temple. Considering explosives can be a bit touchy, the fact that Sokka has experience with them is seriously impressive.

12 Do You Know The Way?

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Sokka isn’t just good at fighting and inventing. He’s actually pretty handy with a map. Throughout the series, Sokka has more or less been the navigator of the group, and he’s pretty good at it. Even if he’s not that familiar with the area, he has a fairly good sense of direction.

Sokka's got a great sense of direction. 

And compared to Sokka, Aang’s sense of direction is... not great. In the beginning, when Aang was navigating, they got lost quite a bit (to be fair, Aang was frozen for 100 years; things have bound to have changed). So this is something that Sokka definitely has over the Avatar. And I think Aang appreciates that Sokka has this talent.

11 Fool Me Once

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Since Sokka doesn’t have any bending, he often goes through other means to accomplish his goals. Sometimes it’s relying on his trusty boomerang, and sometimes he has to get creative. Luckily, Sokka has a knack for trickery.

Throughout their adventures, our main characters had to get creative to help other people without necessarily fighting. And Sokka has usually been the guy to come up with some elaborate but effective plan. He created an optical illusion to make it look like Katara was earthbending, and he convinced the Fire Nation guards that everyone had pentapox. This guy knows how to mess with you.

10 He Took Down So Many Of These Airships

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What Sokka’s really good at is fighting smart. In general, he knows his limits when it comes to fighting, so he often resorts to other tactics when he knows brute force isn’t going to cut it. And it’s this ingenuity that helped him pull off some impressive stunts.

Probably the most impressive one was during the series finale. Sokka, Suki, and Toph were tasked with taking down the Fire Nation airship fleet. It seemed like an impossible task, but Sokka came up with a plan to hijack one airship and use it to crash through the other ships. And it worked! Not many people can say they took down an entire fleet in one move.

9 He’s A Fighter

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Sokka may not be a bender, but that doesn’t mean he’s a slouch when it comes to fighting. Yeah, in the beginning, he wasn’t very good at fighting, but as the series progressed, we see Sokka become a seriously formidable warrior.

Sokka's got some serious combat skills. 

Between his training with Suki and his training with Piandao, Sokka has become proficient not only in weapons, but in hand to hand combat. He may be a goofball most of the time, but when it comes down to it, Sokka will do what it takes to protect those he loves. And he has the skills to take you down, so don’t make him mad.

8 The Funny Guy

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One of the things Sokka is pretty famous for is his sarcasm. No matter what’s happening, Sokka usually has some sort of witty remark at hand. It’s probably how he copes in stressful situations, but it does make him a seriously entertaining guy. There’s a reason why he was considered the comic relief in the beginning of the series.

Now compared to Sokka, Aang isn’t all that sarcastic. His humor comes more from his optimistic nature and that kind of interaction with others. So, while Aang is pretty funny in his own way, he’s got nothing on Sokka in the sarcasm department.

7 All The Romance

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Some may find it surprising, but Sokka is the guy who’s probably had the most luck in the romance department out of all the characters. He’s kissed two ladies, became rather popular in a poetry group, and has had a few admirers.

Now, in this case, Aang may be a bit even with Sokka. While Aang has only kissed Katara, he has gained quite a few admirers on his journeys. But I think Sokka still has him beat in the romance department. It’s kind of interesting since both of them tend to be a bit goofy. I guess girls like a funny guy.

6 He’s A Part Of This Group

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The Order of the White Lotus is pretty much what we wish every secret society was like. They’re an awesome group of old men that break down cultural barriers in order to work together to better the world. Uncle Iroh was a member, King Bumi was a member, Master Piandao was a member, and Sokka got invited to be a member!

Sokka got invited to join the White Lotus! 

In the comics, after Sokka helps the White Lotus in a mission, they give him a white lotus tile, which symbolized them inviting him to be a member of the organization. This is a huge deal, especially since I don’t think even Aang got invited by them. You go, Sokka!

5 Doesn’t Matter Which Hand

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This isn’t completely confirmed, but there’s a lot of evidence that Sokka may be ambidextrous. We see throughout the series that Sokka writes with his right hand, but he draws with his left hand. So, there’s a good chance that he may be ambidextrous.

You could chalk this up to animation errors, but considering the show is pretty solid, that doesn’t seem likely. And Sokka being ambidextrous is a cool idea and kind of makes sense for him. He’s a creative guy who’s constantly doing things in new ways, so not having a dominant hand would fit him pretty well.

4 Take Me To Your Leader

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While Sokka’s leadership skills weren’t fantastic at the beginning of the series, by the 3rd season, we had this guy leading an army to invade the Fire Nation. And they succeeded! (The only reason the invasion failed as a whole was because of Azula, but it’s hard to account for that crazy princess.)

And in the comics following the series, we see Sokka taking on more leadership opportunities and excelling at it. Now, Aang has also had leadership positions, but he’s a bit more passive. Sokka’s more driven personality makes him a pretty good leader, and he’s proved that over the years.

3 He’ll Take His Enemies Down

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If you think about it, Sokka and Aang don’t have a ton in common. Sokka’s a warrior, Aang’s more of a pacifist, Sokka’s more interested in science and technology, while Aang is all about bending. And another thing they differ is how they view life and the ethics of taking a life.

Sokka never seemed to have a problem with taking a life. 

We know that Aang really struggled with the idea of taking a life, and he’s gone to great lengths to avoid doing so. However, Sokka seems to have no major problem with it. He regularly goes hunting, he loves meat, and he was in big favor of Aang taking the Fire Lord’s life in order to save the world. Hey, he’s a pragmatic guy.

2 Nice Warpaint

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Sokka does have quite a few impressive skills, and some are things you could think this water-tribe warrior would have. One of them is war paint. Sokka has demonstrated an impressive talent for face paint, especially war paint.

This does make sense since traditionally, the Water Tribe warriors do wear warrior face paint. So it makes sense that Sokka learned how to do that. But he also managed to paint his face in the traditional Kyoshi Warrior war paint as well. And I have to say that he looks pretty good in both. It’s not easy to create that type of face paint and make it look good.

1 Fight The Power

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It’s true that at the beginning, Sokka was mostly a comic-relief type of character, and he wasn’t always all that helpful. But as the series progressed, so did Sokka, and he become a pretty powerful and ingenious fighter. And by the end of the series, he’s taken on a couple of powerful people.

He’s fought Jet and Combustion Man on occasion, who are both formidable fighters. He’s also gone up against Mai and Ty Lee, who are seriously skilled warriors. While he hasn’t always come out on top of these fights, the fact that he took on some pretty powerful people without the help of any bending is seriously impressive.