🐢🐥

The walk to the Jasmine Dragon is a marathon that passes in the blink of an eye. They loiter by the door for a minute, Sokka trying to catch his breath and gather up his nerve.

“I know it’ll be - weird, or whatever,” Toph says. “We don’t have to go in. If you don’t want to.” 

And the thing is, Sokka doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to burst his bubble of acting like he’s totally okay with everything - of pretending that it doesn’t matter, it’s water under the bridge, he’s fine and definitely not miserable. He doesn’t want to have to go in and endure the pleasantries and the niceness and the conversations about how are you doing where he can’t answer honestly because he’s still mostly lying to himself.

But then there’s the other thing. 

The thing where Sokka does want to go in, actually. The thing where Sokka hasn’t seen Zuko since he was out of his mind with a fever, and hasn’t spoken to him since he broke his own heart letting him - he almost laughs, like he has any authority over what Zuko does - go and move on without him. The thing where Sokka can’t decide between a clean break and being weaned off slowly. 

The thing where Sokka misses him so badly he feels it like a weight on his chest, ribs splintering and lungs collapsing under the pressure, choking, suffocating, drowning.

“It’s just -” Sokka starts. He heaves another sigh. “Whatever. I want coffee. Come on.”

so he starts getting into as many things as his tourettic and adhd mind will let him and he starts hyper fixating and he’s just so invested and so happy and he talks about this thing, whatever it is, all the time but like

he starts getting really self conscious about it because he realizes that he talks about it all of the time and that no one else understands it and like people assure him that they’re okay with it so he thinks that for awhile until he starts to realize that some people kind of just. stop listening. like, he’ll be in the middle of trying to get an opinion on this new invention or he saw something funny and wants to tell the story and people just. stop looking at him and like even stopped doing the smile and nod pretend I’m listening thing like people just stopped putting in the effort to even pretend.

he’ll catch people reading, talking to friends, doing other things while he talks and it should’ve been a fast revelation because Sokka is smart so he should know but it takes him awhile to fully comprehend that people don’t care about the things he says and so obviously he gets dejected and being the scientist he is, he experiments and tries talking to councilors and royal fire nation staff but not his friends because he doesn’t think it’s worth bothering his friends and burdening them with his mouth.

yeah, they stopped listening, is what he realizes. then he starts to remember snippets of conversations he’s had where people would say “here he goes” when he starts to ramble or would make snide remarks and it all kind of falls into place.

so he does what anyone would do and just. shuts up. and he doesn’t talk. like at all for a week. and he just sits in silence at meals and stuff and obviously Zuko and Suki (being the only two still at the fire nation) are incredibly worried??? but Sokka just waves them off— literally waves them off because he refuses to talk because he’s so upset. And they don’t know what to do anymore and Sokka misses speaking because it’s how he expressed himself and felt like words were his only true defense in a world full of magical powers that he “wasn’t special / important enough” to have. oh and even Yue is concerned in the spirit world because Sokka stopped visiting the moon and talking to her.

I think it’d be really nice if it was Iroh, Mai, Jin, or Azula that gets him to open up. Because Iroh wouldn’t care about how much Sokka talks as long as it makes him happy and Iroh loves listening to him talk because it’s so nice to find a youth that’s so passionate and so expressive. Or Mai knows what it’s like to be suppressed and she also likes listening to people talk and she would just be a great ear and it would be a great bonding experience because it would also help Mai.

Then Jin is just a sweetie and would love talking to Sokka and I headcanon Jin with adhd so she would talk with him just as much. Azula wouldn’t deal with it. He wouldn’t be talking and she would snap at him and make him tell her what’s wrong and when he would, she would laugh and say that everyone around him is ridiculous and they’re idiots that are repressing jealously at not being able to care about things so much. and yeah she would be mean but she’s healing and it’s helpful in an Azula-love language sort of way.

then Sokka eventually opens up to Zuko and Suki and this is probably Zukka because I love them too much and Zuko wants to cry because he can’t believe Sokka felt that way because Zuko physically missed listening to Sokka ramble and he was a bit shy about it but when Sokka spoke he always stared at him with this goofy smile and the most loving expression but the boys are oblivious so Sokka didn’t realize (especially in the heat of the moment) and the three have this like important conversation and eventually Suki leaves so Zuko can “go get his man” and he kisses Sokka and Sokka is just “:o” “you actually like me? you actually like listening when I talk? you actually care about what I have to say?” and Zuko nearly cries because he does care and he cares so much and yeah:)

Zuko: there aren’t any children here

me flirting:

aang, katara, and zuko are all incredible characters, and i think everyone appreciates how fantastic their arcs are, but what i love so much about sokka is that he’s not the Chosen One, not even a little bit. he doesn’t have some grand destiny to fulfill; he doesn’t believe he’s meant for something greater—because he’s not. 

he’s just a regular guy. in fact, he’s actively de-powered in a world filled with people who can summon nature to their whims. his little sister is a Hero who can walk on water and part the seas. it is her fate to save the world, and her faith and her courage that does. but he’s just…the hero’s big brother. the hero’s friend. he gathers food and sets up camp and reads their maps and plans their schedules while they do important things, glorious things. 

what makes sokka special is not his destiny, or any particular power or skill he possesses. sokka is special because he’s smart, because he’s open-minded, and because he works hard. in other words, what makes sokka special is that he knows that he’s not special—and that’s a damn valuable perspective to have. 

ozai youre a piece of shit and i hate you

Sokka is drawn below and to the left, in his usual attire with the addition of a couple of studs on his right ear. He is looking to the left and the speech bubble rising from him says, “I can’t… I’m hiding a body.” 

Zuko is again drawn below to the right. His eyes are the same but his mouth is drawn up into a smile. His speech bubble says, “My father isn’t home…” 

Sokka is again drawn below and to the left. He is looking to his right as his speech bubble says, “I know…” To Sokka’s left, apparently behind him, is a cartoonish doodle of Ozai lying on the ground, dressed in his Fire Lord robes and crown, as if dead. A doodle of Aang appears to be standing above Ozai’s body. Aang is dressed in his early S1 outfit and the middle finger of his left hand is extended towards Ozai. There’s a big smile on his face. 

Below are two more doodles of Sokka, both placed towards the right of the image under Zuko’s side. The first doodle is of Sokka in his normal clothes with his back half-turned, but his head facing the viewer. He has a big toothy smile on his face, he is blushing slightly and his eyes are closed as he gives a large thumbs-up. There are little sparkles drawn around him. The text to his left reads, “I hate you so much!” The text to his right reads, “Fuck you Ozai!!!”, the word Ozai double underlined and with three exclamation points. 

This guy. Some of you didn’t even remember he exist, and I dare to say most of you didn’t know him name.

Can we talk about him?

The guy’s the first time we see a real disable person in the series, other then Zuko(who is our villain still and so is not a good representation at this time of the series). He’s paralyzed in both his legs, and uses a wheelchair.

And no one bends an eyelid about it.

I don’t know how much able people will understand it, but this is HUGE. Until now, we’ve seen a world of half-gods and awesome powerful people. We seen some scars, sure, but they’re all there to make the characters cooler, no? The only non firebender character we’ve seen with an injury was Katara, and she healed in the same episode without a mark left. And that’s fine. That’s what we expect from media.

And then Teo comes up. And he’s AMAZING.

The boy’s a NON BENDER, in a WHEELCHAIR, and his flying ability masures to AANGS. He’s equal to the AVATAR. And no one mentions his wheelchair. Our main characters don’t lift an eyebrow. Aang competes with him without thinking twice. Sokka, who is at this point established as completely tactless, only notice the chair’s scientific qualities, not the disability. They’re surprised the chair is AIRBORN, but not by the chair itself.

During the entire episode, Teo moves and talk and hang out with them and it doesn’t come up even once. His father is the only person to bring it up, very brifly. No one dweles on it.

It’s just… it means so much to me. You can talk how much you want about representation, but when disable people are in media, there are pretty much two roles for them to fall into- either they’re used as kind of a comic relief, or their character arc is about living dispite the ability.

And then ATLA gave us Teo. And it was HUGE. Because able people don’t realize it, but we don’t want stories about people coming to terms with their disability. We don’t want stories about accepting it.

We want, and need, stories about people LIVING with it. Not dispite it, not as some kind of a proof to other people that HEY, I CAN DO THIS, but just as living. They live their life like everyone else. They’re as cheerful and happy and great as anyone else. With the disability, not dispite it.

Teo is the begining of a whole theme ATLA led with disable characters. It starts with Teo, an earth kingdom kid with the spirit of an Airbender, who could beat the Avatar himself in a race. It continues with Song(remember her?) that spends her life helping people around her. It goes through Zuko, who pretty much IGNORES his scar during the entire first season. And it comes to Toph, a blind girl who is literally the strongest earth bender in the world, if not the strongest BENDER, and is so independent her friends keep forgetting she cannot read.

best turtleduck siblings

Do not tag as ship