so this is something that i sent to a discord but i wanted to share bc hey. i was proud of it. anyway so sokka.
sokka is actually a very complex character under all of his comedic value, especially in the factor of his trauma, and insecurities.
to understand the rest of his character, you have to understand where it all began. his fear of abandonment is not something explicitly stated in the show, and unless you really look, is fairly easy to overlook. it begins with hakoda's departure, shown in the flashback where he tries to follow all of the other men off to war.
in this, we can see sokka clutching so desperately to his father, he is crying because he doesn't want him to leave. his mother is already gone, and while we barely any evidence on how it immediately effected him, we know he missed her and now his father was leaving too. one of his parents was leaving him again, and he had no idea whether hakoda would survive or not.
like i previously mentioned, this is not expressed a lot, but it clearly effected him deeply, most likely becoming the seed of the deep rooted insecurities we see shown in the Sokka's Master, and because of that episode, we can decipher that he is afraid of being left behind as he believes he is essentially, useless.
sokka's insecurities are mentioned in the show, being the main focus of Sokka's Master as he comes to realise that he is useful. it is quite obvious from the way he carries himself that he believes himself to be a greatly strong individual, despite the fact we later find out that he doesn't actually believe this. this is most likely caused by hakoda leaving, as unlike katara, who firmly believes that despite knowing why he had to leave, thinks it was unfair, but sokka's thoughts on it are quite different. he understands why all of the men left, and has never displayed any problem with it, but he feels that the only reason he was left behind was not because of his age, because he was weak, that he would only slow them down due to his lack of strength, and being with three master benders did not help with this.
along his travels, sokka met a variety of talented individuals, and compared to them, we know he felt inferior, even being told so at times (even though we know it was a joke). this is partly why he is quick to go along with things even if he doesn't believe it is a good idea if the person in question displays that they are impressed with him. one example, is in the episode Jet, where despite showing extreme dislike and mistrust for the other boy, goes along with him against his better judgement because somebody as strong as jet was impressed with him.
these thoughts are further fueled by Yue's death. the chief gave him a job, and to that sokka felt like he was useful, seen as strong enough to protect the princess, but then she died, and we know he believes it was his fault. of course, we know there was nothing that couldve been done to save her, and this includes suki's capture, along with the failure of the invasion and all of the people caught. but no matter what sokka believes this was all his fault. because deep down, he believes that he is a failure, who only slows people down or gets them hurt, and it's not just losing the people he loves that hurts him. it's not being enough to save them.
the reason his issues aren't brought to attention more than they are, is because he hides them. sokka isn't like his sister, who feel freely and wear their emotions and anger on their sleeves. sokka bottles things up, hence why is insecurities were only mentioned in one episode and his feelings regarding yue's death was only brought up the most in the swamp, only for him to brush off any questions about what he saw. he doesn't want to slow people down more than he thinks he already does, so he keeps all of his negative thoughts and emotions locked tightly away, and people don't look deep enough to realise.
however, this isnt to say that his negative feelings are his entire character. sokka is by far one of atla's more complex character's, if you take the time to pick him apart, and we know that while his insecurities are a driving force to what he does and how he acts, he isn't unhappy. he loves his friends, and they love him, and he has learnt how to see his uses over the course of the series, pushed along by the people who surround him.
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