Avatar: The Last Airbender boasts many brilliant characters, each with their own unique traits and storylines. Sokka is undoubtedly the funniest character in ATLA, but he is also a highly complex character that undergoes significant development throughout the series.
Sokka is often used as a comedic device throughout ATLA, either to release the build-up of dramatic tension or purely for the audience’s entertainment. However, he is also a vital member of Team Avatar because of his bravery and strategic expertise. Sokka’s best episodes are the ones that showcase his courage, ingenuity, and comedic genius.
The Library
In “The Library," Team Avatar search for a long-lost library in the hopes of uncovering information that will help them defeat the Fire Nation. After some time spent searching the desert, Sokka eventually spots the library, albeit deeply buried under the sand.
Once inside, Sokka showcases his guile by negotiating access to the library with the Knowledge Spirit Wan Shi Tong. Sokka continues his hot streak by discovering key information about the solar eclipse. Although this information ultimately did not pay off, it was still a very important and impressive discovery.
The Northern Air Temple
In “The Northern Air Temple," Sokka exhibits just how great at problem-solving he is. After Team Avatar takes a detour to the Northern Air Temple on their way to the North Pole, they are surprised to discover a group of people living there.
Sokka forms a formidable duo with one of the residents of the Air Temple, an inventor referred to as the Mechanist. He showcases incredible ingenuity multiple times throughout the episode, but his finest moment is when he invents the hot air balloon. The invention of the hot air balloon is a landmark discovery in the Avatar timeline and is a significant moment for Sokka, who proves with his strategic mind that he's the better sibling than Katara in The Last Airbender.
Bitter Work
“Bitter Work” is one of Sokka’s best episodes simply because he is hilarious all the way throughout. As usual, Sokka’s insatiable appetite gets him into trouble. In an attempt to kill and eat a saber-tooth moose lion cub, Sokka gets himself trapped in a crevice for the majority of the episode, which makes for hilarious viewing.
He ponders his life choices, pledging never to eat meat again if he escapes the situation with his life. Of course, as a self-proclaimed lover of meat, Sokka does not honor this pledge, making the whole situation even funnier.
Sokka’s Master
“Sokka’s Master” begins with Sokka feeling down about being ordinary in comparison to the other members of Team Avatar. To cheer him up, Katara suggests that he goes shopping. Sokka decides that he wants to reinvigorate his battling by purchasing a new weapon, ultimately choosing to pursue sword mastery.
The episode details Sokka’s training with Master Piandao, a sword expert from the Fire Nation. After a grueling training process, Sokka masters sword fighting, marking a key milestone in his character development. He leaves Piandoa’s complex with an epic sword which is undoubtedly one of the most powerful weapons in Avatar.
The Tales Of Ba Sing Se
“The Tales of Ba Sing Se” is one of many episodes where Sokka’s overconfidence gets him into awkward and hilarious situations. In this instance, Sokka is coerced into one of The Last Airbender's hilarious haiku competitions with a poetry instructor.
After initially producing a haiku by accident, Sokka begins to play up to the crowd and confidently recites a few more verses, which makes for entertaining viewing. Sokka is ultimately humbled after producing a haiku with one too many syllables, leaving everybody in the room rather unimpressed. He is subsequently removed from the building in a humorous fashion by a security guard, topping off a very funny Sokka storyline.
Avatar Day
After Aang is accused of a crime that he did not commit, Sokka goes full Sherlock Holmes mode in “Avatar Day." As a firm believer in “the power of stuff," Sokka wears a Sherlock Holmes-style ensemble to look the part during the investigation, making for hilarious viewing.
Despite Sokka’s confidence in his detective skills, he hardly contributed to the investigation, with Katara making most of the deductions before he did. Sokka’s lack of useful contributions to the investigation makes his comedic role within the episode even funnier.
The Boiling Rock
Sokka is simply magnificent in “The Boiling Rock," showcasing the full extent of his courage, ingenuity, and leadership. Despite being warned how severe the conditions are in the Boiling Rock prison facility by Zuko, Sokka still decides that he must go to rescue his father.
Sokka’s extensive screen time in “The Boiling Rock” positions the episode as one of his best, as he is given a platform in which to showcase all that he has learned up to that point. Sokka is ultimately triumphant in his mission while also helping Suki break out of the Boiling Rock as an added bonus.
The Desert
After Sokka drinks the water trapped inside a cactus, he begins to hallucinate and act extremely strangely. The subsequent events are depicted through some of the funniest scenes in ATLA. Sokka is hilarious all the way throughout “The Desert," stumbling through the sandy wasteland spewing utter nonsense about “friendly mushrooms” and “the circle birds”.
While Sokka’s cactus juice-high is intended to be hilarious, it also functions well in terms of comic relief from an otherwise tragic episode. Sokka provides another moment of comedy gold later on in “The Desert” by licking cave-goop without a second thought, despite the cactus juice incident.
Sozin’s Comet
All of the skills that Sokka has developed throughout ATLA are tested in “Sozin’s Comet," and he showcases just how formidable a warrior he has become. Sokka, Suki, and Toph are tasked with sabotaging the Fire Nation airships, which is certainly not an easy task.
Sokka performs brilliantly during the mission, utilizing his tactical genius and sword mastery to great effect. After taking out many Fire Nation airships, Sokka and Toph find themselves in a worrying situation. If it was not for Sokka’s quick thinking, the pair would certainly have met a sad fate.
Day Of The Black Sun
The Day of Black Sun is the event that Sokka has been anxiously preparing for since the day he discovered it in the season 2 episode “The Library." Sokka undergoes significant character development during “Day of the Black Sun." He begins the episode as a nervous and frankly uninspiring leader and is eventually overshadowed by his father’s superb leadership skills.
However, by the end of the episode, Sokka proves his mettle as a leader and continues to do so in subsequent episodes. Despite ultimately failing to defeat the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun, Sokka became a true leader and fought with great courage and skill.