Sokka's Master

"Sokka's Master" is an episode from the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which airs on Nickelodeon. It is the fourth episode of the third season of the series.

Episode synopsis

The episode opens with Aang, Katara, and Sokka, watching a meteor shower. Toph naturally can't see anything, but is lying with them nonetheless. One meteorite falls to earth and impacts close by, starting a forest fire near a village. Fighting the fire, Aang and Toph begin to build trenches around it while Katara flies on Appa to water-bend a nearby lake to dispose of the fire. Sokka, however, is placed in charge of Momo and does nothing to contribute, much to his dismay.

Meanwhile, a guard goes to give Iroh his food in prison. The guard mocks a markedly disheveled Iroh as he scrabbles for the gruel, even scooping what had fallen onto the ground into his mouth. As soon as the guard is gone, he becomes more collected, wipes the sweaty hair out of his face and calmly finishes his meal in peace, only eating out of the bowl.

While they are eating in the town, Sokka expresses how he feels useless for not being able to bend or fight as well as the others. The group tries to console him by praising him for his ability to raise the group's spirits with his cynical, dry humour, which Aang tries to demonstrate by jokingly criticizing Katara's new hairstyle, but fails quite horribly and deeply embarrasses her. They manage to cheer him up by taking him shopping at a weapons store. Katara is seen trying on a pair of old red leather gloves and Aang dons a very intimidating, but heavy dragon armor. After trying many weapons (such as nunchaku, a Pu Dao, a mace, a weighted chain, and picking his teeth with a sai), Sokka sees a priceless sword, that he falls in love with. The shop owner, who looks uncannily like Iroh, informs him that it was forged by the Fire Nation's most renowned swordsmaster, Piandao, who happens to live in a castle nearby. At Aang's suggestion, Sokka decides to seek the tutelage of the master as every other member of their group was formally trained with a real master of a bending art: Aang by Monk Gyatso, Master Pakku, Toph and Katara; Katara by Master Pakku; and although Toph was only taught the basics by a teacher, she learned most of her more complex techniques from Badgermoles.

Iroh is shown again, calmly lying on the ground deep in thought. Suddenly his eyes widen and he begins aggressively doing bent-knee sit ups.

Sokka then travels to Piandao's dojo only to be informed by the butler that he turns away almost everyone seeking the same thing, critical of Sokka having not brought any gifts to prove his worth. During the interview, Sokka humbly admits his own unworthiness to the master, which is exactly what he was looking for. He decides to take Sokka under his wing. He is set about to do tasks such as landscape painting and calligraphy, as well as practicing against one of the master's underlings.

Meanwhile, Iroh is still mocked and ridiculed by his guard, while still feigning senility. It then cuts to the group missing Sokka, with Katara trying to make jokes in his absence, and generally bored. Back at the prison, Iroh is then seen to be training in the guards absence, having upgraded to a more difficult variation of sit-up, the straight-legged inverted sit-up. He keeps up the facade of loneliness and desperation in front of the guard.

In the meantime, Sokka's swordsmanship greatly improves, finally beating the beating while taking a new, inventive approach at some of the challenges set before him. Now, the swordsmaster believes him to be worthy enough to choose a steel to make his sword. Unsatisfied with the samples of metal before him, Sokka gets a flash of inspiration, and gets Aang, Katara, and Toph to help him haul the meteorite up to the castle to use to craft his sword. Aang and Katara are both overjoyed to see him again, while Toph claims that she didn't care, turning away to hide the blush on her cheeks. They haul the meteorite up pushing it while Toph helps them by bending it up some. They are addressed at the door by Piandao, asking about Aang, Katara, and Toph, who he claims to be friends also from the Fire Nation colonies from the former Earth Kingdom, while Piando praises Sokka's ingenuity and creativity.

Iroh is seen to be training whenever not under watch, being able to perform difficult exercises including but not limited to inverted crunches, inverted push-ups, and one handed pull-ups.

After spending the night forging his sword, being made in a traditional Chinese fashion of metallurgy, pouring into a mold, shaping, and quenching, the swordsmaster presents Sokka a very unique, all black broadsword, claiming to have never seen such a creative, imaginative student or blade. Sokka refuses his blade, though, and confesses the truth about actually being from the Southern Water Tribe. The master attacks him, and they then engage in a duel. Aang and the others try to intervene, but Sokka tells them to stand back, feeling he needs to fight the battle on his own.

Meanwhile, still keeping his jailer unaware, Iroh has managed to recondition his body back to its original, intimidating form, and even managed to lose his pronounced belly, which he slyly hides by stuffing spare clothing under his robes.

As the duel between Sokka and his master moves outside, Sokka uses the techniques he's learned--coupled with his youth and agility--to get the upper hand (something the master points out several times) However, the swordsmaster finally gains the upper hand, but sheaths his sword before delivering the final blow. He now reveals that he had known Sokka was from the Water Tribe all along just from his name, and also notes that Aang is the Avatar. Nonetheless, he claims that the art of the sword does not belong to any one nation, and gives Sokka his sword back.

After leaving his castle, the servant runs after Sokka, giving him a bag as the swordsmaster's gift. Inside the bag is a Pai Sho tile: the White Lotus. As the doors to the master's home close, they notice that the symbol of the White Lotus can be seen surrounding that of the Fire Nation. As they leave, Sokka gives Toph a remaining piece of the meteorite, calling it "Space Earth". Happy with the gift, Toph easily forms the meteoric iron into various shapes between her hands, such as a sphere, a spiral, a star and (comically) the outline of the Nickelodeon logo.

Production notes

Series continuity

• When leaving the sword master, Sokka is granted a gift of a Lotus Pai Sho tile. The Lotus tile was previously featured in "The Desert" to communicate between members of the Order of the White Lotus, a secret organization within the Avatar universe that seems to transcend national boundaries. In that episode, Iroh was revealed to be a member of the Order of the White Lotus.

References to other media

• After Sokka gives the "Space Earth" to Toph, Toph bends the material into a sphere, a spiral, a star and the outline of the Nickelodeon logo.
• When Aang mentions the "wind-sword", he talks about taking just a sword handle and bending air out like a blade. This is very similar to how a lightsaber from Star Wars works, but with light.
• Sokka's black sword forged out of iron that came from a meteorite, is somewhat similar to Turin Turambar's sword Gurthang from J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin novels, which was also black and forged from a meteorite. It is also similar to the Sword of Martin in the Redwall series.

References

TV Guide information on the episode