this is one of my favorite episodes, you know why? Because Sokka’s moment of weakness is not trivialized, is not cast aside. Sokka feels like he doesn’t matter and his sister- a girl with enormous power, wants to reassure him that it is genuinely not the case and Sokka matters. She then proceeds to indulge Sokka in one of his interests that is not normally portrayed as something manly but that SHE KNOWS HE WILL LIKE, because she cares and she knows Sokka. Then the entire rest of the episode focuses on Sokka’s talents being unconventional but USEFUL while the Gaang feels acutely his lack of presence. Without Sokka they fall apart, no plans, no morale. He is more effective than he realizes and it is because of him being so much more than just a ‘regular’ guy.

And another thing - even though Katara reassures Sokka that he does matter, she also validates his feelings by saying “I’m sorry you’re feeling so down.” That is so important to me!! She doesn’t say “well you shouldn’t feel that way because your reasoning is false!” Nope - she acknowledges that his feelings are valid, and then tries her best to make him feel better by reminding him that they all care about it, and then helping him recover via distraction. Now that is a healthy sibling relationship, folks.

Remember when Bumi had them guess his name and Sokka was like “Well, he’s a earthbender, right? Its Rocky!” Instead of Katara mocking him she goes “We’re gonna keep trying but that is a good back up!”

Also considering that Bumi means earth/the ground (at least in two languages that I speak: Malayalam/Hindi) so he wasn’t far off.